Unlovable
by charis-chan
Summary: Something strange is happening to Kenzi and it's tearing her from inside out. Memories of the past are threatening to consume her and destroy her new found family... She needs help, but everybody think this is something she brought onto herself. Doccubus with a healthy dose of Kenzi-Lauren friendship. Planned for 9 Chapters.
1. Unusual You

**A/N: So… I started writing this story long before the third season aired. So you can say this one starts off as the second season ended, it has nothing to do with the third season and in a way is AU… and you are going to find that most characters are a little OOC.**

**Either way, I hope you enjoy this. Most of it is already written and after this one the chapters start getting longer. It is also planned for nine chapters, so, please enjoy the show.**

**This is also the last/first Author Note you are going to come across, mainly because I really need this story to flow without you being interrupted to read my thoughts.**

**Please, if you would like, leave a review and tell me what you think.**

**Warning: May contain situations no one wants to be in. It may also contain angst overdose in some areas.**

**Language Warning: English is not my first language and I was really careful while writing this, so please, I beg you; tell me of any mistakes in the story so I can fix them and improve my language. Thank you.**

**Disclaimer: Don't own Lost Girl or anything you can recognize. I only own my little strange imagination.**

XxXxX

Something had changed between them; she could feel it deep inside her and it scared her.

After the Garuda was defeated things were great for a little while. There was no longer the danger of the end of the world; Bo had found a grandfather, and she and Trick had spent time together every day getting to know each other better and, in Bo's case, learning more about her heritage and family history; Val was no longer at odds with her brother, and had taken a like to being around humans, going so far as to shop with Kenzi twice; Lauren had gotten free of the Light and was still working for the new Ash, but now as a trusted doctor, not a mere slave; Vex became a little less insane and had even started to go by the clubhouse to chat, especially with the crazy human; and Dyson had gotten his love back, and with it the hope of earning Bo's love again.

In a way everybody was happy for some time after the final battle. Several "after the end of the world" parties were thrown and they were all confortable with each other, but it didn't last long.

Problems started to arise as soon as the festivities died down. Somehow Val and Hale had gotten in a discussion with their father. The elder Santiago was beyond pissed that someone as lowly as Kenzi was part of the Garuda takedown and that she was being showered with gifts from his only son. Apparently giving a box of sweet chocolates and a rainbow colored wig was now considered to be showering someone with gifts. Both Santiago kids were warned to hang around _the _human. At first neither of them really heard him, but after a couple of weeks of frozen credit cards and a repoed car, Val was reluctantly going back to her father's arms. Hale was a little more difficult, but even the amazing siren had to relent when his father almost disown him. It didn't matter to him, really, no longer being a Zamora, but it would have destroyed his mother, and he loved her too much to see her broken. Now both were not talking to the rest of the gang, especially Kenzi.

Trick had known since the beginning that Kenzi's part in the plan was essential, but he could also see that most Fae elders weren't going to be happy about it. A dirty human could not be part of the biggest battle of the century, and he knew that. In a way it made sense to him, humans were not actively part of the Fae world, they were merely food, so he could not condemn Hale's father. Lauren's case was different. The doctor was under the Ash's orders and it was her duty as servant to do exactly as the head of the Light had said. Kenzi, on the other hand, was an unaligned pet, no better than a mere human. One day, after some cups of strong wine, he had even wondered out loud why Kenzi's behavior hadn't been corrected. She was a pet, she didn't have the freedom to do as she wished, and her manners and habits weren't as they should, or so he had said to his currently companions that, unfortunately, had been Bo and Kenzi. The fight between granddaughter and grandfather had been epic, or so the few witness at the Dal had said. Trick was left with a succubus hand print on his cheek and the promise of not going back; a promise Bo had followed true and enforced onto a shocked young Russian girl.

The Morrigan had come by and had asked for her favor, the one Kenzi owed her after saving Nate from her evil hands. After defeating the Garuda, Vex and Kenzi had formed an unlikely friendship. The Mesmer was really funny once one got used to his twisted sense of humor. Also, the dark Fae was pretty good playing video games, so the two of them could spend several hours killing zombies and monsters. Vex was still on the Morrigan's bad side after the sex puppet's incident, so Evony had asked something that deeply disturbed Kenzi. With Dima's help she was able to snap several shots of an indecent Vex doing some twisted sexual things. There was something plain wrong to see a grown _Fae_ man playing baby to a dominatrix, sucking a baby bottle and peeing in a diaper. The Morrigan was happy to have now something to blackmail the Mesmer, and she couldn't stop herself to tell Vex exactly who took the pictures. To say he was pissed that his _friend_ was bold, and stupid, enough to betray him was something mild. Bo had to actually put a knife at his throat to keep him from bending the petite girl into a ball. After that, the video games' days became nonexistent and the chats between the crazy duo stopped. Vex literally disappeared from their lives.

And, to top it all, Dyson and Lauren had gotten in some kind of competition of wills. Both were interested in the succubus, but neither of them was willing to share a bit of her. Apparently it was all of nothing and Bo loved them both, making the Doctor and Detective edgy. Bo had wanted to sit down and talk, she knew at the end she needed to choose, and in a way she already had. Lauren was like medicine to her soul and the blonde doctor was perfect for the romantic and emotional side of hers, she was her choice. The succubus was in love with the Doctor, but she loved the wolf. Dyson was like a best buddy, a handsome friend she was physically attracted to, and to whom she could have sex with without worry to kill him. So, even though her heart was Lauren's, Dyson was hard to ignore. Time spent with the three of them in a room was like having a press over the head, the tension was so thick Kenzi had made it to be away from Bo once Lauren and Dyson appeared. The succubus couldn't be with one because as soon as one showed up at the clubhouse, the other wasn't far behind; maybe it had to do with a six sense or something, but apparently the possessive streak they both shared was tuned finely to the brunette.

That, added to all the problems that had surfaced had Bo on her last nerve. Hale wasn't that close to her, but she missed the siren and his easygoing vibe. Val was not really a loss, but she was a remainder of what the hate for humans was in a Fae world, and it made her think of her grandfather. Maybe -trick was the worst of all, because, while she could more or less wave through the Lauren/Dyson problem, not having someone to relay on was hard. Kenzi could listen, true, and she understood her better than most, but her reasoning was biased. She didn't grasp why she couldn't really choose between those two, for her it was simply finding out where her heart laid. At first Kenzi hadn't like Lauren and all her money had been on the wolf, but then, Dyson had hurt Bo in a way Lauren would never. Kenzi thought the love Lauren had for Bo was deeper, purer than the mating possession Dyson was aiming for.

But, the Vex problem was something that made doubt surface in the succubus heart. Vex was supposed to be Kenzi's friend and Kenzi's friendship was something she had rely on up until that moment. Having her friendship was the sure way to having her loyalty. Bo could understand why she did it, the Morrigan was collecting her favor, but what she did to him was plain wrong. The younger girl could, and would, have say no at any time, or so she believed. If the Russian girl could betray someone she cared for deeply, and she did cared for Vex even though she couldn't admit it, then, what could possibly happen to her?

Vex and Kenzi had several things in common, he could played the games Bo didn't like and their witty comments entertained each other for days, going so far as to text each other through the nights just to top what the other had said. They talked for hours, not crazy talk or jokes, but actually talked. Bo had never seen Kenzi open up to someone as fast as she had done with the Mesmer. Also Bo thought there was something else in there. She had came back home once to a tense Vex on the couch, the television had been on one of Kenzi's favorite movies. At first it had been odd the Mesmer was watching a movie even she considered too girly, but the weirdest thing was the lack of her best friend. Upon closer inspection she had discovered that the petite raven haired girl's head had been nestled in Vex's lap. The younger girl had been fast sleep with a body language that spoke of total trust. Something she had only witnessed her do with the succubus herself, not even Nate had gained that privilege. Vex had been even stiffly stroking the goth's hair, up until that point Bo was the only one allowed to touch Kenzi's dark mane.

After Vex disappeared tension started going up in the clubhouse. Kenzi was her usual self, she was a happy little girl, smiling and laughing a lot. She even didn't mourn the loss of her dark friend. Sure, she was upset for a couple of days, but soon enough it was all forgotten. The same had happened with Nate, she had cried herself to sleep one night, and then it was in the past. Maybe there was something wrong with the Russian girl.

Kenzi's detachment was something that bothered Bo deeply. She loved her little human, but, exactly how much did the succubus know about the girl? Kenzi didn't talk about her past preferring to live in the present, and when she talked about her family, which was only twice, she became serious, not in a sad kind of way, but a guilty one. Bo sometimes wondered what Kenzi had done to been forced to leave her home at such a young age, maybe she had done something like what she did to Vex.

The more the succubus thought about her best friend and all the secrets she kept, the more uncomfortable she became. The more she stopped to look at her smiling face, the angrier she became. How such a creature could be that happy when the world around her was falling apart? Vex, Hale, Val and Trick were gone, and it was matter of time before either Lauren or Dyson left too. It was killing Bo, to lose all her friends, her family, in such a short amount of time and Kenzi acted like nothing was wrong! It was almost like a game to her.

She'd always known there was something strange about the girl… after all, not every human had ever been so comfortable with the Fae before. Lauren was a slave, only chained to the Light because her girlfriend's lie depended on it, but Kenzi has voluntarily gotten herself in the Fae world, and it didn't bother her. It was annoying her lack of self-preservation.

She just couldn't keep going on like that. The human needed to understand not everything was a fairy tale, and that reality was harder than it had been to her up until that moment.

XxXxX

Kenzi closed the door carefully and immediately felt the tick air in the house. Soon after Vex had gone away the clubhouse started to feel heavy and interactions with her roomy had become more and more unbearable. Bo had become serious around her suddenly and she didn't know what had she done wrong. Sure things were hard at the moment, but she was confident Hale and Val would break their father's rules sooner rather than later. Also she knew Bo had already chosen Lauren and Dyson was really only looking to save his pride rather than Bo's love for him.

In a way giving Dyson his love back had been the wrong move. The wolf was more interested chasing a distant dream than really trying for anybody's happiness. But they had needed him as his best, giving everybody the chance to fight the Garuda and live to tell and party. Sadly Bo didn't see it like that. At least Kenzi had tried helping everyone. In the end it played well, even if things were tense around her two favorite Faes.

Trick's sincerity had hurt her deeply, but she also knew the older man had his reason to think like that. The man was old beyond her comprehension and he believed in the old way to do things. Besides, more hurtful things had been said to her. She knew she had already forgiven him, but Bo's decision to stay away from him and the Dal made it impossible to talk to him.

She felt responsible Bo and her grandfather's relationship had ended because of her. She was guilty of breaking a bond it had just started, and it made her sad to know the woman she loved the most now was truly an orphan. Well, her mother and grandfather were still alive, and probably her father too, but the succubus was aware that at least her mother wasn't interested in her and that she could not be related to a Fae that considered humans lowly pets. Her father could be a serial killer for all they knew, and it made Bo feel alone.

Vex was something she was deeply ashamed of. Thankfully the Mesmer and she had already talked about it and everything was more or less normal between them. They decided to be apart some time as to not hint the Morrigan her plan to split their friendship had worked. Vex was currently at London managing one of his many nightclubs and Kenzi's heart was lighter knowing things didn't reach the not returning point. Also, the promise of several shoes from across the pond was something she was excited about.

There was just something about the Mesmer that screamed trust when she had stopped to listen. It had all started when waiting for the Garuda to appear, one second they were trying to ignore each other while watching television, and the next, they were both criticizing the stupid show they were stupidly watching because neither of them had wanted to made an effort and reach for the controller that rest at the edge of the small coffee table. It was hilarious and something she'd done several times with her roommate.

But her Bo-Bo was different now, though. Maybe she had said something to bother her, or maybe she had done something to piss her off. But she could almost feel the anger when she was around Bo. It was so hard to be around her that she had started going to the Carpe Noctem everyday just to be away for a while. Amazingly enough she came home sober more often than not.

Vex had made it clear she could drink everything she wanted, all on the house, but she just couldn't drink more than a couple of beers without getting too depressed. A depressed Kenzi was something she didn't have the time to take care of. The tears, yearning for comfort and general pain were things she couldn't afford right now, especially if she wanted to keep her more recent mess hidden.

Her arm, where the Norn's 'gift' had been splashed was always warm and painful. The scales and rash were long gone, but it did hurt, a lot, normally when she was near sleep. Sometimes it woke her up, it especially hurt beyond reason when one of her long ago forgotten nightmares made an appearance on her usually peaceful dreams. More often than not her arm hung limply at her side, useless and plain bothersome. She made it to a point to smile and laugh, though; she didn't want Bo to know. Her best friend was going through too much pressure to add her problems to the list. And Kenzi knew it was her mess to clean, just like old times when she'd done something stupid that had cost her more than she was able to pay.

Kenzi looked up at the stairs. She debated for a split of second to leave the house or just try to go to sleep. It was nearing midnight and she was tired and hurting, so it was an easy choice. Tossing her jacket to the couch she started to her room noticing how silent the house was. It felt almost deserted. As she got closer to her room she heard the faint noise of thudding. She stopped for a second and strained her ears. It came from Bo's room.

She approached slowly to the door almost afraid of what she could encounter. Even though the door was mostly made of glass Bo had started putting a cloth over it to avoid Kenzi's eyes. She stopped a moment just to consider exactly how much that action hurt. Shaking her head she approached little by little, trying to hear more clearly. Looking closely she saw the door was partially open, so, really slowly she pushed it. What she saw made her stop suddenly.

In the bed, almost covered with the cream colored sheets were Lauren and Bo. Their bodies were flush together and moved in unison. The succubus had the doctor pinned to the mattress and Kenzi could now hear perfectly the moans and hisses that accompanied them. She wasn't on girl on girl action, she was sure of that, but there was something mesmerizing about seeing two admittedly beautiful women together. The way Lauren shuddered under the pressure of Bo's well placed kisses over her chest and neck, the way the brunette's hands disappeared in tangled blonde hair and in between shaking legs, the way their hips moved rhythmically, almost like one.

The younger girl knew she shouldn't be looking, and with Bo already uncomfortable around her she was taking a risk too big. Even so, she couldn't move and that sparked some recognition in her mind, almost like a déjà vu. At that feeling filled her, the two bodies on the bed shifted giving Kenzi a good look at Bo's back and making the doctor's face visible. In a second Lauren's wide eyes met hers and she was pooled into a memory.

XxXxX

_Little Sasha was hungry and there was no better person to fix that problem than her Mama. Her Mama has just gotten back from a trip somewhere in the south; her Babka had told her her Mama went to a place really warm to celebrate her new marriage. Her Mama had married a man she met at her work, some classy and important man that went often to the little dinner her Mama worked in. Nika and she had stayed at her Babka's for almost a month before moving in to their new house. _

_The new house was huge, or so little Sasha thought. Nika had his own bedroom, all painted in dark red and black. Hers, on the other hand was pink and bright, just like she liked it. Her bed was a princess castle and all her toys were new and shiny. She was a happy girl._

_She paddled down the corridor to her Mama's room, where she knew the answer to her hungry would be. If Nika hadn't been still asleep her fifteen-years-old brother would help her, but she knew he was tired after a long week of exams, so waking him up was a big no-no. She reached the white wooden door soon enough and without a second thought she turned the doorknob. She was used to do it before, so why not now?_

_When the door opened, she was frozen into shock. Her Mama and he were on the bed, tangled in the covers very close together. Her Mama's face was showing a strange expression and she could hear strange sounds. Before she could really understand what was happening in there, her pale blue eye's met her Mama's grey ones. The movement in the bed stopped and she saw the anger in his face almost as the same time her name was being said._

_XxXxX_

"Kenzi!" Lauren's cry of surprise snapped her out her memory and started her into motion. She made a dash away from the door; close behind her she could feel someone chasing her. Just after entering her room she felt an iron grip closing around her right arm, the pain suddenly exploded around her making her hiss and stop.

"What the hell were you thinking?!" Bo's angry eyes were blue and it scared her.

"… sorry." Her voice was small due the pain. "Please, let me go."

The succubus instead of releasing her slammed her to the wall near her bed. The pain in her arm only intensified. "No! Tel me, what were you thinking?!"

"I- I'm sorry." The younger girl nearly sobbed, out of pain or fear, she didn't know. Bo only slammed her again. "I- I thought there w-was something in there."

"Of course there was something in there! Lauren and I!" Bo's blue eyes got brighter. "What do you think give you the right to spy on us?!" She snarled in her face.

"I said I'm sorry!" Tears were now escaping her eyes. The fear growing more intense than the pain. With some effort she managed to extract herself from the angry Fae, taking several steps back, nearer her dresser.

But, Bo wasn't ready to let go. The frustration and anger she had been nursing towards the younger girl reaching her breaking point. She followed her until she was trapped between herself and the big, open dresser. With nowhere to go Kenzi just stopped, praying for the naked succubus to not end her life. "Really, Kenzi, you think saying sorry makes it all better?" Something in her tone made it clear the spying wasn't the only thing she was talking about.

The younger girl knew it was the first time she had ever saw Bo in bed with someone, and more often than not the older girl wasn't shy about her sexuality and didn't care if Kenzi knew she was sleeping with someone. "What are you talking about?" she hugged her throbbing arm to her, really puzzled about what her friend was saying.

"Oh, so the human don't know what she has done?" Bo got even closer to the girl. "Maybe, I don't know, thanks to you Hale is no longer around. Oh, wait, you don't care, right? I mean, Vex was special, but that didn't stop you from hurting him too, right?"

"…Bo…" Kenzi said in a small voice. Those things were out her control, she couldn't force Hale's dad to stop being an ass and she was indebted to the Morrigan. Her best friend knew that, right?

Bo ignored her, she had so many things bottled up she just needed to say them. "And Trick, because of you I no longer see him. But he wasn't important to you, only to me. Let's talk about who you care for then, uh? I mean, do you really care for someone?" Kenzi's eyes opened wide, the fear that her best friend thought like that even more powerful than the fear of losing her life to the succubus. "What about Nate, uh? You broke his heart and it didn't even bother you after a day. What kind of heartless thing are you? You don't care about love or loyalty, do you? No wait, you do care about love, you got Dyson's back, and only made my life miserable! I don't know how the hell you did it, but he says it was you! You never stop to think, you just do stupid things! Now I have to shove away a wolf in heat while trying to conserve the woman I love!"

Kenzi's eyes widen at the accusation. She was doing everyone a favor in returning Dyson is love. And Nate was her choice, she choose him over Bo. She would away choose Bo before anything and everyone. "… I'm-"

"Shut up!" Bo interrupted her apology. Looking at where the younger's girl back was she made a decision. "I'm tired of you. Your voice, your music, your video games, your clothes all around the house. You drink too much, you eat too much, hell, you are higher maintenance than anyone I've ever known. You are always too loud, too irresponsible, too messy. I'm done!" Without a second thought the succubus grabbed the younger girl and shoved her into the dresser.

Kenzi, still shocked at everything couldn't react in time, and before she knew it she was being locked in what was her biggest nightmare. She had spent so many hours in her bedroom closet to be comfortable with any dresser or closet's door closed, thus hers always stayed open. Since living with Bo she'd learn to leave everything wide open, it helped when she needed something while making her feel safer than ever. The darkness around her made her panic. "Bo!" She yelled and pounded at the wood. "Let me out!"

There was desperation in the human's voice, but Bo ignored it. "Quiet!" she yelled in return and slammed her hand in the door.

"Bo, please!" Her breath start coming short and the tears running down her cheeks intensified. "Please!"

"I said be quiet, you ungrateful brat!" Kenzi heard the voice, but it was no longer her best friend's one. It was deeper, male and too familiar, with a hint of amusement and pleasure behind it. Those same words that had been yelled at her so many times, those words she'd always though she would never hear again.

Memories of her stepfather snapping that same sentence came rushing back and she collapsed on the floor uncontrollable sobs filling the darkness, making the room church silent.

'_Quiet at last.' _Thought an irritated succubus. She relaxed her body onto the dresser, feeling her anger starting to subside.

"…Bo?" Lauren's small voice said. Bo turned her face to the entry of the room where her lover was standing, confused and scared. The doctor had put on her robe, a blue one Kenzi had got her just after defeating the Garuda. "What's going on?" She stepped closer to her altered succubus.

Bright blue eyes blinked several times before their natural brown ones appeared again. "Lauren?" Looking around she saw they were in her roommate's room. She was still naked and was pressing herself on her friend's dresser. A dresser that was crying loudly. In that moment her mind understood what she had done. "Oh my God! Kenzi!"

The dresser door was pulled open with force and there, in the floor, curled in a tight ball was Kenzi. Her mascara was totally ruined and her body shook with the force of her sobbing. Her arms were around herself and Bo could not believe what possessed her to harm her little sister like that. She reached to the girl, her voice now soft. "…Kenz…"

With a fluid motion born of pure survival, the younger girl slapped the hand away and dashed out of the dresser. Standing close to the exit of her room she looked directly onto Bo's eyes, eyes that were warm and full of regret. The sobbing had stopped, but her chest rose quickly and tears kept streaming down her face. Her own eyes were looking at what she thought was her older sister directly, the one that would protect her from all harm; make her forget her fears and nightmares. How wrong she had been. Her blue eyes were blurred with her tears and they showed more pain Bo had ever seen in someone.

The contact was soon ended when Kenzi just turned and dashed to the stairs. Seconds later both women in the room could hear the front door slam with enough force to shake the fragile walls.

Bo turned to her lover, her own eyes filling with tears. '_What have I done?!'_

XxXxX

_Nothing about you is typical  
Nothing about you is predictable  
You got me all twisted and confused  
It's so you_

_Up 'til now I thought I knew love  
Nothing to lose and it's damaged cause  
Patterns will fall as quick as I do_

_**Unusual You (Britney Spears, 2008)**_


	2. No Second Chances

Kenzi sat at the end of the bar at the Dragon, the new human club everybody was talking about. The place was almost full and the noise was a pleasant background for her misery. Between all the bodies around nobody seemed to notice the petite girl. It was late at night and she was tired and hungry. Her hair was a mess, but she was smart enough to enter a public bathroom to fix her face. She looked different without her black mascara, she looked younger, like a teen. She was sitting quietly trying to find the strength to really do something.

She was still shocked at what had happened at the clubhouse and was sure she wasn't going back anytime soon. Bo had really freaked her out and hurt her. The older girl knew she was scared of being locked again in a closet or something similar, and yet, she'd done it.

She knew Bo had been really mad at her, and now she understood why, but even so, she didn't mean to hurt her. It was not her fault to be human, it was not her fault she came across the succubus, and it was not her fault to be who she was. She knew many people hated her energized self, but she couldn't stop it, that was just the way she was.

Maybe it she could change somehow everything could be like it had been before.

She stared at her beer, it had grown warm and it was almost full, she really didn't want to drink tonight. She could stand a lot of alcohol, but knowing she didn't have a place to go back revert her to her old habits. No place to sleep meant no getting drunk. No place to sleep meant steal her food, clothes and name, again.

It had been almost two years since she was pulled from the streets, but that didn't mean she couldn't find her way around again. In her back pocket were already a few hundreds, kindly donated by a couple of wallets that were now in the trashcan on the alley behind the club. As soon as she found herself running away her instincts made her steal to survive, she didn't really notice it until she found herself holding the wallets to her chest. Also, she'd managed to snatch a jacket from a garage sale, although it didn't help with the cold she was feeling.

"Hey there, beautiful." A young man approached her. "Wanna drink?" He handed her one of the drinks he was holding. He was handsome and open, she could tell almost immediately he meant no harm.

She looked into his eyes; they were brown and deep, just like her best friend's were. Instead of feeling the warm she always felt when thinking of her she just felt like throwing up. She smiled sadly at the man and patted his cheek softly. "You're a good man." And with that she simply left.

XxXxX

Lauren watched silently at the path Bo was making in the carpet on the living room. The brunette had forgotten to put something on and was pacing frantically in front the television. She was biting her thumb anxiously and she looked at her phone every three seconds.

The doctor knew she was waiting a call from Dyson. The wolf had been informed of what had happened as soon as Bo's tears had subsided. The succubus broke down a minute after Kenzi had disappeared out of the door and she was certain Dyson's connections could help them find the younger girl.

At first her emotions had gotten the best of her and a big part of herself had wanted the girl gone, but just for a little while. Then, even though she was distressed, she couldn't muster the strength to really go on the streets to pursue the runaway human. She had been too stunned at first and then, just too appalled to know that she was no good on the streets at the moment, and she hated herself for it. Their only option, then, had been Dyson.

Yet , the brunette kept dialing Kenzi's number every few minutes, only to be sent to voicemail. She was frantic and in a near state of panic. She couldn't believe what she'd done to her friend, she just couldn't.

"Bo." Lauren called her from the couch. "Sit down a minute, we'll find her."

The succubus stopped and stared at her. Slumping her shoulders she just did as her lover told her, sitting in the doctor's lap, just needing the contact. Lauren, in return wrapped her arms around her. "I can't believe I did that." She mumbled into the doctor's neck.

"What happened?" Lauren knew Bo was having trouble with almost anyone she knew, and she was certain her possessiveness wasn't helping at all. But Kenzi was always a separate matter. Kenzi could practically get away with murder; she was the spoiled little sister after all.

"I don't know." She said scared. "I've been feeling tense around her, but never like this. Never like this."

"What are you talking about?" Lauren combed her fingers through the dark mane, even though she suspected what was wrong it was only correct to let Bo explain herself.

Bo was silent for almost a minute before just venturing what she was feeling. "Everything is falling apart, and I can't help but think is somehow Kenzi's fault." Seeing Lauren wasn't going to comment, she continued. "Hale and Trick have a problem with her humanity, and Dyson is a pain in the ass because of her."

Lauren blinked, "But Bo, Kenzi is no responsible of being human. And she did make us a favor saving Dyson. Without her help we wouldn't have defeat the Garuda."

The succubus sighed deeply. "Even so, really, how much do we really know about her?" She wanted to justify her actions if only to make her chest hurt a little less. "She could be a serial killer or something and we'd never know. There is not a real reason to trust her." If she could connect with her previous anger, then she was certain the oppressing feeling would ebb away.

The doctor smiled. She wasn't Kenzi's favorite person, and she knew it, but she was fond of the younger human. "We know enough about her. We know she is really energetic. We know she like wigs and shoes, especially expensive shoes. We also know she is always half starved and have a really sweet tooth. Even if she was a serial killer, which I highly doubt, we know she loves you and makes you complete."

Bo blinked at Lauren. "You say that because you don't live with her." The blonde didn't know as much as she did, she wasn't aware of Vex, or Nate, or the girl's bad habit to procrastinate, or her bad timing, her non-existent manners, or Kenzi's intense fear of being trapped in small spaces.

"Then tell me."

XxXxX

Kenzi walked down the street with her hands buried deep in the 'borrowed' jacket. Her arm throbbed with each step she took and she was beyond tired. The sun was already up and the city was starting the day. She was in a part of the city one shouldn't go alone, at least not until it was midday. She just didn't care. Her feet carried her around without her really noticing it.

She knew she needed to stop and sleep at some point, but she had yet to find a decent place to crash. She had passed a decent park, a more or less clean alley and what appeared to be an abandoned mattress in the back of a store, but neither of those options were what she wanted. She wanted her bed, in her home, surrounded by her things and clothes.

'_But they are no longer your bed, your home or your things, are they?' _ She stopped walking and looking at her left she saw something that made her smile a little, even though the sight didn't really help her mood.

There, standing next to her was a man in his late tweenties. He was wearing a pair of used jeans and a leather jacket, just like the last time she saw him. His image was pale and she could easily see the people walking just through his body without batting an eye. His long dark hair was pulled back in a thigh ponytail and his once blue eyes looked at her honestly. A small smile also graced his lips, a little shy but really comforting.

'_Bo told you not to steal, and she bought you all those things. They are hers, not yours.' _Kenzi couldn't deny that. The older girl did tell her not to steal, so she tried not to, and she did buy her all the things she needed or wanted. Bo rarely told her 'no' if she wanted to do or have something. Most of the time she thought Bo was trying to be the mature and responsible one and that made her the one to spoil her rotten. But after last night, she didn't know anymore.

Her arm felt warmer as a yawn almost split her face in two. She really needed to sleep. She wonderer for a second if she could go to Trick's and ask for a place to stay but that was ruled out immediately. Her relationship with the old Fae was still to be decided, and there was always the chance that he now hated her for keeping Bo away.

Dyson was also out of the question. The wolf would want to know what happened and would call the succubus as soon as she stepped inside his loft. Hale was a big no-no too, he was having problems with her father because of her after all.

'_You do cause a lot of trouble around, don't ya?' _His words were spoken softly, almost whispered, even though they both knew nobody but her would hear him. She nodded. She had been always a problem magnet and she couldn't learn to behave. No matter how much her stepfather punished her, or how much her Mama told her to make things easier, she was always getting into trouble, or causing them.

She blinked back the tears her yawn had formed and really looked at where she was. She was in a small alley with several graffiti adorning the walls and trash littered around, but just in front of her was a small abandoned car. It was easy to see the car had been there less than a week because, even though it was missing the tires and the motor, it wasn't as dusty as other cars she'd live in.

Smiling softly to herself she made her way to the backseat, where the door was already broken in. The seats were not as fancy as she'd have thought and that explained why they were still there, but they looked really comfy. The man let loose a low whistle in appreciation but made no comment.

Sighing and telling herself she'd done this several times in the past, she climbed into the seat and closed the doors, making sure two of the windows were cracked just barely open. She locked the doors and made herself as comfortable as she could.

"I missed you…" She said to the man that silently sat on the front seat. He looked back and nodded before disappearing in the silence.

Kenzi smile again and closed her eyes. Her arm started itching and pulsing and she had to move around a lot until she found the perfect position. In seconds she was sleep.

XxXxX

_Little Sasha was playing in the garden. Their new house had a really big garden where she and Nika could play all day long. Sometimes even Dima and Yura would stop by on their way home. Her two older cousins, along with her brother, were her heroes. The three were really older than her, but they loved her and treated her like a little pearl._

_She was singing off key and dancing around. She had just gotten back from school. Nika was still in classes, and the older boy had already planned hanging out with his best friend Nate. Nate, their neighbor, was cute and she really liked him. He was funny and played the guitar, Nika played the drums, so they spent more afternoons playing together. Sometimes they would let her tag along, Nika teaching her how to play, or Nate showing her his favorite video games. The boys were a little more than ten years older than her, but sometimes they'd dress up with her and play doctor or house, a couple of times they had even let her paint their faces with Nate's mom's make up. They were stupid, and sometimes smelly, but she was happy around them, when she was allowed. _

_Today was not a day they wanted her along, but that was fine. She may was little, but she understood most of the time the boys wanted to do something fun only older boys got to do. Like playing those complex and scary video games, or reading those strange magazines, the ones with the pretty girls on them._

_She was alone in the house and that was fine with her, she was happy. Her Mama was shopping with some friends she had made just after her marriage, little over a year ago, and that man was working to make all the money her mother liked spending. Both were supposed to go back little after the sun had gone down, and by that time she was supposed to have done her homework and have gotten a bath with Nika. She still got time for that._

"_What are you doing?" A stern voice came from right behind her. She turned around and there he stood, still dressed for work. He was wearing that same scowl he always had for her._

"_Just dancing…" She said in a little voice, her eyes lowered just to avoid his scary face. He was really tall, taller than any person she knew, and she was very little, the littlest of her class and the youngest of her whole family._

"_I can't hear you brat, speak up."_

"_I sai' I'm just dancing." She spoke louder and clearer, hopping to just got past his enquiry and to be left alone._

_The man snarled, angry beyond reason. "Don't use that tone with me, you ungrateful brat!" He marched to where she was and grabbed by the arm, lifting her to stand on her toes. "You'll learn how to speak to your elders real soon if you don't want to see my belt!"_

_Sasha trembled with fear. The belt was a close acquaintance of hers, almost as known as her small closet. After she had discovered her Mama and he in bed he had started to lock her on her closet for hours, and, when he was really mad, started beating her with his belt or just hand. Unfortunately for her neither her Mama nor Nika were around each time something like that happened. Her Mama was always out, and Nika spent most his free time at Nate's, so she was left alone more often than not. "I'm sorry, sir." She said with tears in her eyes._

_His nostrils widened with each breath he took. He looked down at her for almost ten minutes pulling her and hurting her enough to make her understand he was in charge. She tried to keep still and didn't cry, even if her arm was getting sore, but she couldn't go on forever. When she started struggling he smiled, a smile that was so terrifying it almost made her piss herself. Glancing at his watch he said in a too sweet voice. "Maybe it's time for your next obedience lesson."_

_And with that, he half dragged, half carried her insides the house._

XxXxX

Kenzi woke up with a start. Sweat poured down her face and the clothes she was wearing were stuck to her body, soaked in her fear. Her chest hurt and she was having trouble breathing, almost as if she had asthma. She sat up in the little backseat, trying to get more oxygen to her lungs. One of her hands went to her face and discovered the trail of tears she had left on her sleep.

The air was too thick, too hot to feel any better, so she opened the door and climbed out the car, just resting against the trunk of it. It was chilly and the contrast of her heated skin with it made her shiver, but it also calmed her down. She now could feel her arm pulsating and burning, like it had never done before, it felt just like hot chili pepper was cursing through her veins. The late evening air helped her control her breathing again and she started feeling better, but it didn't last long.

Almost as soon as she gained control of her body, a new, yet very familiar, pain made itself known. There was again that pain that made it uncomfortable to sit still very long, the same pain that sometimes woke her up when she was little, the same pain that made it impossible to run, and sometimes even walk, the same pain she had tried so hard to forget. Her legs gave out when the meaning behind it really sunk in; sliding down the side of the car she simply shook as new tears started burning her skin.

'_This can't be. This is so not happening!' _She thought. She looked down at where her legs met and started sobbing harder, closing her eyes to erase the image planted in her head so many times. _'No. No. No. NO!' _She screamed in her head, shaking it trying to make sense of things.

Because her pants, where her legs met, were soaked, just like they had been many times before. A bloody patch poured out her center covering the top part of her legs and making her realize why the pain was so real.

XxXxX

Lauren have managed to put some clothes on Bo, and it was a good thing, because almost two minutes after she'd combed the brunette hair in a loose ponytail Dyson had come in. The wolf and the succubus were now discussing what had needed to be done to find the runaway human. Dyson had spent the last several hours trying to find her essence, but it had grown to faint to really track. Apparently Kenzi could run fast and for a long time. Also, the detective had been trying to find her all over the city, with no luck so far.

"We need to do something!" Bo exclaimed. She was seated between the doctor and the Fae, both trying to calm her down somehow and silently giving her their support.

After explaining everything she knew of the girl to Lauren she'd come to the conclusion that it didn't matter if Kenzi was a private person or if she was a serial murderer. She was her little sister and she loved her, just as Kenzi loved her. Talking to Lauren had the side effect to make her understand she had been stupid and irrational. Her own fear of the girl casting her away like she did Nate and Vex clouded her judgment and made her see things where there were none to see.

"I've already put out a BOLO for her." Dyson informed them tiredly. "But, I hate to say this, we have nothing to go with. All the files we have on her are filled with lies."

The doctor blinked. "What do you mean?"

Dyson looked at the two women. They were sitting close together, their thighs touching and Bo's hand was on Lauren's knee. It didn't make him feel possessive, strange enough; he was just concerned for both them and Kenzi. "I mean that we know nothing of the girl." He said gravely. "There are at least six rap sheets this tick," he held his thumb and index almost an inch apart to show them, "of Kenzi. All of them with fake names, fake addresses and fake birthdates. Heck, even in the photos she's wearing wigs!" He rubbed his face with his hands. "They are all based on movie characters, actors or books. It's frustrating."

Lauren frowned, just as Bo did. "But," said the doctor. "Kenzi is not a common name, maybe if you check the births records?"

"I have. There are one dozen Kenzis in the city. None of them match her description and all of them are too old or too young to be our Kenzi."

"Maybe she wasn't born here." Bo mussed.

"I think she did." Dyson answered them. "When she got poisoned by the feet-soup she escaped to a graveyard not far from here. She told me she used to go there often when she was a kid. But, I also check school records, there was no Kenzi registered at the time she was supposed to attend."

Bo groaned. The girl had to make their lives difficult, even when she was not around. She started feeling her anger revive and that startled her. "Lauren, I'm getting mad at Kenzi again." She said in a small voice. A part of her told her to just forget the brat and stop being so preoccupied she was gone. It was the same kind of feeling she'd felt when she attacked the girl, it was irrational and raw. Almost like if it wasn't hers.

Lauren stared at her. They had already discussed her anger and it had been labeled stupid. Bo was supposed to be scared, anxious and desperate, not angry. "Why?"

"She is making us concerned; she's making you edgy and Dyson powerless, maybe it'd better if we left her alone." Her voice lacked the warm it always held when talking about Kenzi and both Dyson and Lauren felt it. Her eyes were turning blue and her body started to shake with anger.

"Bo…" Dyson whispered, what was happening with her?

"The stupid brat escaped, let's her leave."

Lauren recognized that line of thought. It was the same that had made Bo lock Kenzi in the dresser. She had listened at everything Bo had said, even though the succubus didn't know. She kind of understood it, but it didn't make it right. "Bo, calm down and listen to yourself." She grabbed Bo by her arm to make her look at her eyes. "You are doing it again."

The succubus blinked and her eyes turned brown again. "Oh, God, what is happening to me?!" she shot from the couch and started pacing again. "I- I don't understand! I need talk to her." She grabbed her phone and dialed Kenzi's. Just like the hundred times before, it rang for half a minute before going to voicemail. "Dammit! She's still not answering!" She dialed again.

Dyson looked at her before hearing a faint noise. Looking down he soon found the source of it. "Bo, she won't answer you." Reaching down under the couch he held up a buzzing purple phone. "She left it here."

Bo disconnected the call and groaned. "Great! She can't talk to us even if she wanted to." She was ready to pull her hair anytime now.

"Bo, Bo, calm down." Lauren got up and grabbed the succubus by the arms. "Calm down. We'll figure it out."

Dyson looked at them and for the second time in that afternoon without feeling more than concern for their state of mind. He could smell how Bo relaxed at the contact and how Lauren's fear subside.

"I'm calm, I'm calm." The brunette smiled at the doctor. "I'm calm." They sat again in the couch, Bo still in the middle.

Dyson also got up and got a glass of water for each of the females. Giving them he sat again, this time in the chair to give them more space. "Do you always feel this angry at Kenzi?" He asked without preamble.

Bo sipped her water, trying to sort her thoughts. "Sometimes, sure, but I've never feel like this." She said after a while. "It's almost like she is a pain in the ass. Well, she is always a pain in the ass, but it never bothered me, you know? She's like a little girl making noise all the time, but cute nonetheless. She's also noisy and rude, and doesn't do as I say. Sometimes I really want to put her over my knee, especially when she's done something stupid. She makes me mad all the time." Tears gathered in her eyes. "But I love her. She is my little sister."

Lauren hugged the woman to her own body and caressed her hair. "But when did the anger start becoming a problem?" Dyson asked again.

"Shortly after Vex disappeared." She murmured.

Lauren frowned. "Are you sure it wasn't before that?"

It was Dyson's turn to frown. "What do you mean?"

Lauren looked between the two Faes. "Well, I mean that Bo had been really tense around Kenzi for a while now. Sometimes I saw a look of annoyance when Kenzi talked or did something imprudent. Especially, a-uhm…" She stopped right there, not wanting to make things awkward.

"Say it." Bo was really curious of what she had to say. She hadn't notice her behavior and that worried her.

Lauren cleared her throat. "Especially after the Dal's incident." She grimaced, almost expecting something to blow up. "I didn't want to pry in your life, Bo, I simply thought you two where having a sisterly fight and I leaved it at it. If I'd known something like this was going on, I'd ask sooner." She smiled sadly, "I'm sorry."

Surprisingly enough the one who answered wasn't Bo. "It's not your fault." Dyson said calmly while the succubus stared at her lover. "It does smell Fae to me."

Bo shook her head, trying to stop overanalyzing things. So Lauren noticed the change but didn't want to say a thing out of respect. Had anyone else notice it? "What do you mean Fae?"

Dyson looked at Bo directly. "You love Kenzi like I have never seen a Fae love a human in a non-sexual way. If something is making you feel different, it could only be Fae. What do you exactly feel?"

Bo closed her eyes. If this was somehow Fae then there was some serious ass kicking due, delivered by a really annoyed succubus. She thought for a moment, trying to put her feeling into words. "It's just really faint at first. It usually starts when I hear her voice. There is this part of me that wonders why she is still here, why I keep her around. I can ignore that for the most part, but if she tries to speak to me, then I feel this anger building up." She opened her eyes, they were dancing with tears. "Last night, for a moment I felt good hurting her. It was like all the love I had for her turned into this gut-wrenching anger and, and I hate her." Tears were running down her cheeks. "I hated her more than I've ever hated anyone, and it felt good!"

"That's not something Bo would feel about Kenzi." Lauren said holding Bo's hand and caressing her fingers.

Dyson nodded. "I know. That's why I think this is Fae related."

"But- but how?" Bo sobbed. "We'd been out of business since the Garuda! The only contact she'd made with Fae is you and me."

"Are you trying to tell me Kenzi, energizer-bunny Kenzi, had been sitting still for almost two months now?" Lauren asked perplexed.

"Yeah, well, for a while she and Vex expended most days in here playing video games and just talking, but he's been gone for some weeks now." She explained, and then it hit her. "Dammit! It has to be Vex."

Dyson tilted his head to the side, not really understanding. "What are you talking about?"

"Kenzi owed the Morrigan a favor for a while until not too long ago. Kenzi got a tape of him doing some kinky things for her in order to pay her debt." Lauren explained as she recalled what Bo had told her not too long ago. "Vex was furious."

The wolf nodded. "That makes sense. Maybe it really was him." Then frowned. "But even so, how could he possibly do it?"

Bo jumped to her feet, determined to end things as sooner as possible. "Just one way to find out: the Carpe Noctem."

XxXxX

Kenzi had managed to clean her face and tame her hair a little. She had put the jacket around her waist to cover the blood on her jeans, but it didn't help with the uncomfortable sensation she was feeling. Besides the pain her arm was causing her, now it hurt to walk, so she was making a really slow pace.

She had gotten far from the car she had spent the day off and was trying to decide what to do. She needed clothes, but going back to the clubhouse was out of the question. She had money, enough to buy a pair of jeans and some shirts if she felt like actually buying, but she also needed someplace to clean herself up. She was feeling icky and smelly. And confused, really confused.

Her upper legs were covered with blood and her center hurt beyond reason. She knew her period wasn't due anytime soon, and she had always been regular, so that could not be. Also the pain was familiar to her, but there was no possible reason why it was there. She knew she had been alone in the car, the locks were down and she knew any noise would have woken her up. Even though Bo liked to say she was a heavy sleeper, it was not really the case. Before meeting Bo every little noise would startle her awake. The succubus was the one to make her feel safe enough to actually sleep.

'_Too bad it ended really soon, don't you think?' _A man, in his early thirties said from her left. His dark hair was cut short and a silver chain connected his lower lip to his ear, were an assortment of several piercings marred his skin. He was right. Her life with Bo had had ended for a while now, ever since the Garuda she had known something was different between them, but she hadn't want to admit it.

"This sucks." She said into the air. She had lost her family really soon, almost two years since she was pulled out of the streets she was back to them. Maybe this was her destiny, to be a street urchin and to just live a miserable life. If it was so, her arm and center were a really nice gift. Both hurt terribly.

She closed her eyes, trying to fight back the pain as she kept going; unfortunately closing one's eyes meant to reference at to where one is going. She tripped on something and face planted on the path, a really soft path. With a grimace she managed to look up and was perplexed at what she saw.

There, no more than a yard away was her Babka's grave. The long ago white marble was now grey and in desperate need to be scrubbed. The soft grass that once had been splayed out in front of it was now yellow and tall. The small pot where she used to put flowers on was smashed, only the base remained. Her Babka's name was still there, in its original script, but due the dirt it was hard to read.

The only thing that made the grave stood out was the small circle Kenzi herself had done with small river rocks on top of the dirt, it was originally meant to be the cleanest place she could kneel for hours to be with her Babka, but some of the rocks where missing, giving the whole scene a sense of dread and pain. She couldn't help but sneeze at all the dust and dirt lying around and she wondered exactly how many years had passed.

XxXxX

"_Babka! Babka!" Little Sasha yelled when she crossed the door. The elderly woman was waiting inside just for her. She was already on one knee and had her arms opened. The seven-years-old girl tackled her to the ground, hugging her fiercely._

"_Sasha! Kak dela?" Her voice held a hint of a laugh. The little girl was always so energetic._

"_I'm good Babka." Said the little girl answering the question. She got up and helped her Babka to her feet._

"_Ya nee paneemayoo." The woman said with a smile._

_Little Sasha frowned. "Of course you understand me, Babka! You've live here longer than I!"_

_The woman laughed. "I know, my darling, I know." Her accent was thick, thicker than any person she knew. "But you need to practice your language."_

"_I practice enough with Nika, Dima and Yura." The girl pouted._

_The older woman smiled. "It's never enough."_

XxXxX

Kneeling Kenzi looked around and wasn't surprised to notice she had ended in her old hang out place. Just a few yards to the left was the small bench sometimes she had slept on, to the right, passing a long row of graves was a trash can, from where she would hunt something to dine when she couldn't steal anything in the market.

'_Seven years.' _The older man pointed out. _'It had been seven years since the last time you've spent more than a night in this place.'_ Putting a hand on the dirt near her knees she could almost feel the warm her Babka's hugs always had given her. Closing her eyes she could hear the laughter that had always carried on her Babka's house, hers and her cousins. Her Babka had always had children at her house, but she had been special.

Kenzi had been the only girl in the whole family, and her Babka loved because of that. Also, she had been the youngest by several years. That had given her preferences in the house, like her own bedroom. The boys were prohibited to enter, even when she was not around, and more often than not they respected her and her space. Kenzi smiled, everybody in her father's side of the family had loved her deeply, but sometimes even the love from ones could not possibly help with the hate of others.

She was the youngest, she was the cutest, and she was the girl. Even though they did care for her they treated her like a doll most of the time, like a dumb doll. She had no opinion, she had no voice. And every adult always thought she was really imaginative and that she was scared of things that didn't exist and couldn't possibly happen. To the date, her aunts and most of her cousins thought she was half neurotic and saw things where they were none.

She closed her eyes and her hand formed into a fist, grabbing the loose dirt on it firmly. They couldn't understand why she ran away. Nobody believed her when she told them, years after it all begun, so she had to escape, there hadn't been other way around. A tear ran down her cheek. There hadn't been other way around.

She didn't need to see to know, because she felt it. She knew there were arms around her torso, hugging her silently, giving her support, yet not really touching her. She also didn't need to look to know the man she had been talking to wasn't the one hugging; the arms were more feminine and older, and certainly wider.

"Babka…" She whispered brokenly. The arms, in return, just hugged tighter.

XxXxX

_No Second Chances  
Don't knock on my door  
There won't be any answer  
I won't be here no more..._

_This house we had together  
Might still be in its place  
But the rest of this is much too hard to face,  
There'll be No Second Chance..._

_**No Second Chance (Blackmore's Night, 1997)**_


	3. Learn to be Lonely

Bo, Lauren and Dyson entered the club. It was still early in the night, so the place was far from packed. The building hadn't have change at all, the rooms were as always dark and the music far from what they all liked. Also, the lights played effects in their eyes that confused the wolf and gave a headache to the females.

Walking with a purpose the little party of three went directly to where the bar area was. Behind the counter there was a very good looking girl, if Bo wasn't so concerned with Kenzi, and already in a relationship, she would have jumped her bones. But there was no time for it, there were there for a reason after all.

"Hi!" the girl's voice was sweet and happy, contrasting heavily with the dark gloom of the place. "What may I serve you?" She ended her sentence with a cute little smile.

"We are looking for your boss." Dyson came forward and said without preamble, swiftly invading the girl's space. He smelt the Fae in the girl and let loose a little of his inner animal, showing his canine and growling a bit.

"Ah…" the girl step back, putting a safe distance between herself and the wolf the other side of the counter. "Master Vex is not in town." She forced the smile this time. Those three made her feel uncomfortable.

Bo flanked Dyson, and leaned over the counter to face the girl directly. "Really? I know he did something to a friend of mine and I know he has to be around for that!" Bo's eyes flashed bright blue, silently daring the girl to say otherwise.

The bartender blinked at the display. She shifted her gaze from Dyson's yellow eyes to the succubus' blue ones for a couple of times. Then, she looked past those two to the blonde and smiled. "You are BoBolicious, the D-man and Dr. Hotpants!" She exclaimed almost excited. "I've been dying to meet you, guys!"

Dyson and Bo's eyes turned their natural color as they looked at the girl like the lost soul they thought she was. Lauren, instead, sat at a barstool and regarded the girl with pensive eyes. "What are you talking about?"

The girl the smiled the biggest smile all of them had ever seen. Lauren almost wondered if it was possible for someone to smile that wide. "Meow Meow told me everything about you three! You are her family!"

Dyson tilted his head and asked what Lauren was thinking. "Meow Meow?"

Bo, on the other hand sat next to Lauren and frowned at the chipper girl. "Do you know Kenzi?"

"If Kenzi is Meow Meow, then, hell yeah!" The girl reached down the counter and grabbed three cold beers and passed them along. "She said this brand is you favorite."

And she was right. The beer was the one Bo liked best. She stared at the girl while Dyson finally sat on the other side of her. "How do you know her?"

"Master Vex brought her here some weeks ago." She smiled at the memory. "He said the girl could drink anything she wanted and not to bother her with money. He also said every Fae in here was responsible of her and if anything bad happened, it was our neck on the line." The smile died a little, but the fondness was still there. "Everybody knew not to bother her, but she and I hit off right away. She never did tell us her name, thought, something about keeping her profile low, she also didn't tell us your names, but now I can see why."

Dyson took a sip of beer. It was good, really good. "What do you mean?"

The girl smiled. "She told me she didn't want to attract attention to you three. This is mostly dark Fae territory, if some of the people around here had known Meow Meow was friend with the unaligned succubus, the light Fae detective, and the Ash's doctor, problems would have started. Most dark Fae resent the Light was more eager to face the Garuda than them. Most could probably follow Meow Meow just to try and kill one of you, in a very bad attempt to restore some of their pride."

Lauren nodded. It somehow made sense. "Did you say Kenzi is protected by Vex?" She asked after a second.

The girl nodded. "Yeah."

"I don't understand. Vex and she had a fight not too long ago, he was pissed at her, he even tried to kill her!" Bo gulped down half her beer, she really needed the alcohol.

"They didn't fight." The girl told them with her head tilted. "She did something stupid and Master Vex laughed it off."

The succubus frowned. "But… I was there when he was trying to bend her into a ball!"

"Ah, yeah, about that…" A deep accented voice said from behind. The trio turned to see Vex entering the club in his usual flamboyant fashion. "I did was angry at her for a while. Let's just say she is too cute to stay mad at."

"Master Vex!" the girl exclaimed. "We weren't expecting you until next week!"

"London was too boring; I needed the excitement only this city can give me." Vex dismissed the girl with a hand. "Now go and serve some clients."

"Yes Master." And with that the girl left, leaving the three friends with a happy Vex in front.

"What have you done to Kenzi?" Bo accused. She didn't believe for a minute that Vex didn't have hard feeling towards her little sister. She had been there after all.

The Mesmer blinked. He'd thought his Kitten had already told Bo he had been off to fix several problems his clubs over the pond had been having. "I went to London to work on some of my clubs."

"Liar. Tell us what you did to us!" Bo got up and nearly snarled at the owner of the club. "You did something and it hurt Kenzi."

Vex frowned. After the incident with the Morrigan he had talked to the little human and they had parted on good terms. He had to leave for a while after that, but he hadn't been mean to the girl, nor did he wish to be the reason his little human was hurt. "What are you talking about? I haven't seen Kenzi in several weeks."

Dyson also got up. "Tell us the truth, what have you done?"

"I've told you. I haven't seen Kenzi in a while, and I didn't harm her in any way." He looked at the succubus hard. "On the other hand, what have _you_ done?" Bo instantly grew silent and averted his gaze. The Mesmer's eyes widened. "What did you do?" He was truly amazed the woman could in any way or form harm what was considered to be her little sister. Nobody messed with Kenzi if Bo had anything to say, he knew his power was huge, but it was nothing compared to the angry succubus that surfaced every time the human was in danger.

"A mistake." It was Lauren who answered him. "She ran away and we believe Bo's actions are Fae related. Up until now the only Fae that Kenzi had have a problem with was you." She put her arms around the sadden brunette. "Maybe you could help us." Lauren had seen what kind of relationship the Mesmer and Kenzi had. It wasn't romantic, or brotherly, but it certainly was deep. Something made those two connected in a different level, a level Bo could never achieve because it was so different to what the two sisters had. She firmly believed the club owner could not have hurt Kenzi, but maybe he did have some information they didn't.

Vex looked at the trio and could feel the desperation they were living. "She was mostly fine when I left."

"What do you mean mostly?" Dyson also thought it was hard for the Mesmer to do something against the human; he had also seen the bond they shared, after all.

Vex's eyes were firmly set on Bo's face. The brunette wouldn't look at him, but she certainly could feel his stare. "She was sad and tired. She felt like something was pulling her away from you. She was also scared that somehow her days living with you would end soon. She had nightmares." At this, Bo lifted her face and looked at him in surprise. He opened his arms wide, motioning the room they were in. "I brought her here, trying to make her forget about any monster that clouded her sleep, but she wouldn't drink, she wouldn't dance, and when questioned, she would simply shut off and leave." His eyes were sad, and it scared the trio. "After a while we stopped asking, so she'd spent the evenings and nights here, talking to Georgia or simply staring at the dance floor."

"Why didn't you say anything?" Lauren asked softly.

Vex shrugged, but it was also sad. "She is very private and I know she won't revive her nightmares awake. She was troubled, but she was making an effort to be happy for us. For you." This last part was specially delivered to the succubus. "Her arm bothered her some, and she hadn't been eating much, but physically speaking she was sound."

The four of them then expended the next seconds trying to come with something that could lift the tension talking about Kenzi's problem caused. Bo was mortified Kenzi was suffering alone, without her by her side, but she was conscious enough to know that if Kenzi had gone to her to talk she would have probably brush her off. Dyson was trying really hard to not believe the Mesmer, but there was nothing that made his statement untrue. And Vex's mind was set on not lashing out on those stupid three that had made it possible to the little human to be hurt, he also couldn't believe the girl left the only home she had have for years.

"Wait." Lauren spoke up. "Did you say Kenzi's arm was hurting?"

"Yeah." Vex said, perplexed the little human hadn't told them. "She hurt herself sometime before the Garuda."

Bo looked at Lauren, then at Dyson. "Why didn't she tell us?"

The doctor didn't reply; she knew Kenzi wouldn't tell even if she was dying. The younger human was deeply afraid of doctors and she was also sure Bo would force her to see one, going so far as to carry a kicking Kenzi over her shoulder into the compound's lab. She'd done it before, when Kenzi had been injured while carelessly throwing knives at their practice target.

On the other hand, Dyson grow pale after a second and had to sit down. The shifter also started trembling and the other three looked at him scared. "She didn't tell us-" his mouth grew dry and had to lick his lips to continue. "She didn't tell us because it was the Norn." He looked directly onto Bo's eyes. "She attacked the Norn and she, in return, attacked her."

"What do you mean attacked the Norn?" A perplexed Mesmer asked. They knew Kenzi got back the wolf's love, but none of the, really knew how she did it.

"She came to my house carrying a chainsaw and this little purple bottle. She told me she had just visited the Norn."

Lauren nodded slowly, understanding almost instantly the problem they were in. "There is no way the Norn should have let one of her payments back once it was traded for something else…"

"… only cutting down her tree would made her panic enough to give Dyson's love back." Vex finished her thought.

Bo closed her eyes, a pained expression on her face. "Oh, Kenzi, what have you done?"

XxXxX

The warm rays of the sun shone on her face, slightly warming her frozen cheeks and nose. The hard feel of wood pressed on her cheek and the slight breeze made her shiver.

_Kenzi opened her eyes to a bright room, long forgotten room. She blinked slowly and looked around. She was in a bright pink room, filled with plush toys and dolls, the closet's doors were open, just like she liked them, and they revealed rows and rows of princess dresses and low heeled shoes._

_She recognized the room immediately. She rose with a start and really looked around herself. Her worst fear was confirmed. She was dressed in a fluffy pink camisole and the pale pink sheets pooled around her waist. The Disney's Princess comforter was on the ground, just like so many nights it had been. Next to her was her lovely Octi, a little hatted purple octopus that had been with her since birth; it was the last gift her father had given her. _

_Everything was smaller than she remembered; the desk in the corner wouldn't have fit her at all. So, when she pulled the cover from over her and got out of the bed, she was not surprised to see that her feet reached the ground easily. The last time she had been in that room she had needed to use a little step to climb out or in the bed._

_Standing up she looked at the around again. It was strange to feel the deep carpet caressing her toes again; it was strange yet so familiar how the bright light played funny shadows of her toys. It was also kind of comforting, everything in that room had been long lost or outgrow._

_She started walking to the closet, trying to remember every dress she ever had, but a too familiar noise stopped her. There were steps, heavy steps, coming faintly from the door. The steps got louder as the seconds passed, making it sure whoever was walking down the long corridor was to be soon at her door._

_She faced to the door almost as the doorknob started to turn, and as the door opened she couldn't but scream in pure fear._

XxXxX

Kenzi's eyes snapped open with a gasp. The pink walls were gone and it their place the bright sun greeted her. Instead of the confortable bed she had been resting on the hardness of the grave yard's bench made itself known. She had her borrowed jacket thrown over herself, but even so she was shivering.

Once again she was soaked to the bone in her own sweat, the remains of her nightmare. Her legs ached and her arm was burning hotter than never. She could feel once again the warmness between her legs, but the pain from before was now a dull ache, giving her little comfort.

'_What a big girl are you.' _ This time the person talking to her was a relatively young man, yet older than her, his head was shaved in a blond Mohawk, his black leather jacket shone in the midmorning light. His voice was soft, warm, and although the comment was meant like a jab, some worry leaked through his words. _'Wetting yourself and smelling like those drunken homeless you were so disgusted about. Wonder what Bo would tell if she saw you like this.'_

"She'd probably been too disgusted to even come close." She whispered to herself as she sat on the bench, just before scrunching her nose.

She knew she was a mess, a smelly mess. She had no doubt any person would be more than disgusted, but in a way she didn't care. She was uncomfortable, true, but she was also too tired to really do anything about it. She wasn't going to steal anything anytime soon; she couldn't do it without being caught. Besides, really going too far was just something she just couldn't even put her mind into.

Maybe the Bo she loved would just tell her she stunk and maybe force her to take a shower. But that was before this whole mess began, before, when Bo still loved her and cared for her. When she was sure she could do almost anything and the succubus would laugh it off.

'_Are you sure she's even accepted you? If she knew the truth, would she have taken care of you?' _The man sat with her, his translucent body floating easily in the wood. His voice was filled with remorse and a touch of empathy, almost pained. _'You do have some things lying around here, just in case.' _He said as if trying to apologize for even saying those things about Bo.

"It's the most helpful thing you'd ever say." She commented to him. She wouldn't dwell on her companion's first comment, but she, indeed, had some things lying around. Running away from home since she was little showed her that some things were necessary to have if you frequented a place enough, such as this particular grave yard.

After escaping for good she hadn't spent so much time in this city, but she always came back to visit her deceased ones, and whenever she was in town this was the place she'd spent her nights in and where she'd always leave a change of clothes and some fake ID's, just in case.

'_You sure you are ready to move?' _He asked as he stood up, facing her. If she wanted her things she needed to go to the Crypt, just up to the very far end of the grave yard.

Testing she started to get up; she made it all the way to her feet only to start swaying. The man quickly tried to catch her, but her lithe body went through his fingers. Losing her balance she landed solidly on her ass, making the ache between her legs intensify.

"Maybe I'll give it some more minutes." She answered promptly.

XxXxX

The front door was kicked open. After the human's visit it had been replaced and reinforced with several bolt locks, but it didn't put on a resistance to the combined force of an angry shifter and a pissed succubus. The old woman within got up from her confortable couch in front the television, an shocked expression on her face that soon turned to disgust at seeing the three figure on the door.

"Well, well, the wolf came back. And you are followed with your succubus and her whore." The old hag's voice was filled with disdain. "What favor are you seeking now?"

"We came for no favor." Said Bo, her eyes were bright blue at the Norn's obvious insult for Lauren. "We want to know what you did to Kenzi."

"Kenzi?" The old woman feigned memory lost. "I know no Fae with that name."

Dyson growled, his canines and yellow eyes easily showing for the older witch. "You know her well enough. A little human so powerful you had to give her what she wanted." He scoffed a laugh. "Not even the powerful Norn could say no to her. A mere human."

"There is no power in attacking and old woman in her house and threating her life and power with a saw!"

The trio didn't react at that. They were hoping Vex was wrong and the saw was just for show. Apparently Kenzi needed to be told what kind of behavior was acceptable of a crazy human and what behavior was simply suicidal. Bo was certain when all was said and done that she and Kenzi would sit and have a long, nice chat about self-preserving and carefulness.

"But even so, she was able to make you do as she wished, did she not?" Lauren said form her position behind the succubus. It was made clear to her earlier that while they were at that old woman's house she was to be behind Bo or Dyson, and she was to remain as unseen and quiet as possible. It did not matter to her; she wanted answers, just like her two companions did.

The Norn snarled. Being told off by one human was enough for a life time. Being told of by two in less than a couple of moths was just too much. "What do you want?" The faster they leave, the faster she can pretend they didn't exist.

"What did you do to Kenzi?" Bo repeated. Her tone was sharp and angry, ready to kill the old hag if she kept playing around.

"I gave her the wolf's love back." She smiled sickly.

"That's not true." Dyson say. "You did something to her, and now she is gone."

The sick smile grew. "I merely gave her a well-earned gift."

It was hard to really know what happened next if someone asked Lauren. The sudden rush of air and the blur of black was the only thing her human mind registered before watching the Norn fly towards the wall. Bo was next to her as soon as she hit the ground and was ready to strike again if Dyson hadn't reacted first and in a spilt of second had hold the angered succubus back, trying to avoid more damage to the old Fae.

"Bo," he said. "Calm down!"

"Not until she tell us what she gave to Kenzi!"

"Calm down before you make things worst!"

"Hear the wolf," the Norn said from her place on the floor. "I could easily make your life miserable."

The succubus snarled. "You already have!" Bo's eyes started shining an electric blue. "My little sister is gone and it's all your fault!"

The old Fae's eyes widened. "You consider that scum to be your kin?"

"She is my family, and I want answers!" Bo was sure the surprise behind the Norn's eyes shouldn't have bothered her, but it really had. Why is that no Fae, save for sometimes Dyson and Hale, really understood her relationship with the raven haired girl.

The Norn looked at her, her smile appeared again, just like the crazy bitch everyone thought she was. "Phobos' Dream." It was all she said before crackling with laugher.

"What?" Lauren and Bo asked at the same time.

"The stupid human," the Norn said in a high pitched voice. "Broke a bottle of Phobos' Dream and got splashed with it!"

"What the hell is Phobos' Dream?" Bo demanded of the crazy hag that only started laughing harder. She looked at her companions, silently asking if any of them knew what the Norn had been talking about.

Lauren shook her head, even after reading and studying Fae history and biology for more than five years she was still too green to know what the oldest Fae was talking about. "I don't know."

Dyson, instead of talking simply grabbed the useless Norn from the floor by the front of her tunic. "Tell us what that means." The oldest Fae just continued laughing, so the wolf shook her rather hard. "Tell us."

"Fears! Lots and lots of fears!" The old woman crackled, the force of her laughter literally making it impossible for Dyson to hold her, his grip losing by the second. "Lots and lots of them!" With an almost soundless thud the old woman hit the ground to only keep laughing like a mad woman.

Bo and Dyson shared a look. There was something strange about that laugh; it was almost as if the old woman had finally lost her last marble. Bo was afraid that was the only clue they needed to really know exactly what kind of mess her little human was in.

Lauren subtly made her way to where the other two stood watching the Norn, placing a gentle hand on her lover's arm. "Maybe we should ask questions in another place." Her deep eyes connected with Bo brown's own.

She didn't need to tell it, it was implicit in her tone, in her eyes. Bo understood quickly and had to close her eyes. "Trick."

XxXxX

_Who will be there for you,  
Comfort and care for you,  
Learn to be lonely,  
Learn to be your one companion._

_Never dreamed out in the world,  
There are arms to hold you,  
You've always known your heart was on its own.  
Learn to be lonely,  
Life can be lived, life can be loved alone._

_**Learn to be Lonely (The Phantom of the Opera, 2004)**_


	4. O Fortuna

Kenzi looked up to the tall door she was leaning against. The gate was smaller than she remembered, and it was rustier than the last time she saw it. It was also heavier, proof was that she had been pushing at it for almost ten minutes now and the door had yet to open.

'_You've done some good work to yourself,' _the man with the Mohawk was leaning against the door, trying without succeeding to help out. '_You can't even open a crypt door.' _The jab was for both of them, and his tone said it.

"I'm sorry," her voice was faint. It was like she had forgotten how to really speak. "I'm just too tired." Her arm hung limply at her side, useless as ever. Weak and with only one good arm made it difficult for the raven haired to really push it open.

'_How about getting some food in your system or something? You haven't eaten since a day before leaving Bo.'_

"I ate at Vex's a couple of hours before heading hom- Bo's place." She wince at her almost slip. Calling the clubhouse home was no longer an option. It was Bo, and probably, Lauren's place, nothing more. Maybe someday in the distant future she could visit.

'_Munching some peanuts and _then_ throwing up is no longer considered eating.' _The man visually sighed. '_And you know no matter what, you'll never go back to visit._'

It was Kenzi's turn to sigh. "You've all been awfully present these past days. Why the sudden interest in my person? The others had been always happy to chat a little or solve my questions; but _you_ haven't appeared for a while now."

'_You need the company. You didn't need me at the time to keep you sane, and I know sometimes talking to us makes you look crazy. I wouldn't want Bo or Dyson taking you to Lauren for a mental exam. I didn't know the others were talking to you, though.'_

Kenzi couldn't help it; a single tear ran down her pale cheek. Angrily she wiped it with the back of her hand. "Well, it seems that we are going to be just the two of us from now on again, right? I mean, when I'm by myself you are the one always with me."

'_Even though I like being around you and helping you out whenever you need, I really wish you could find someplace to be safe and not by yourself. Someplace where you don't need me to make you company. We all do.'_

Kenzi laughed more tears escaping her eyes. The laugh it was hollow and sad, and not the overly happy laugh that always infected Bo."And I really wish you could be a real person, but then again, none of our wishes are ever going to be true."

'_I am a real person, I'm just dead and body-less; and even thought that should give me the power to control your bony body, it doesn't and it makes me feel powerless.' _The man confessed, trying again with no avail to open the door by himself. _'There were times when I wanted to yell at you to stop doing stupid things, or to stop drinking so much beer, but you were too happy, I didn't want you to feel bad.'_

"You could have told me, I would have listened. I got worried after a couple of days I didn't see your faces and heard any of your scolding voices. I was nervous, confused and sad, I felt abandoned, just like the first time. For a while I thought you were all gone."

'_I'm sorry, we thought you were ready to be on your own, and I really thought Bo was right for you and that she was going to take my place in saving you from yourself. I don't know what happened to her.'_

"Nothing far for the norm." Kenzi said in a conversational tone, she even shrugged a little. "Everybody abandoning me, hurting me or using me. That's the way things are."

'_That's not true. And you know it.'_

"It is. Either they have fun hurting me, I leave before they really can make money out of me, or they die." _Maybe is better Bo hates me, that way she's still alive and I'm not used._

'_And that's not true, either.' _He reprimanded her. _'You leave so you don't get hurt.'_

"You are all dead, aren't you? And I should've leave Bo sooner, then, we'd still be friends." Now that she thought of that she knew it to be true. She should have left after the Garuda was killed, when Bo started showing signs of being mad at her.

The man didn't answer at that. There was nothing it could say to make things better, and just as Kenzi had said earlier, it couldn't control the lithe human's body, otherwise she'd made the girl go eat something. _'You ready to try again at the door?'_

"Yeah, just give me a few."

XxXxX

"Everything is going to be fine." Lauren said to the nervous succubus. Her arms were around the fae female at the waist and she was just barely hugging her, enough to show her support and that she was there.

Dyson looked at the pair. They were standing at the beginning of the ally the Dal was at. They had yet to even go close to the door and Bo's agitate state was evident. "She's right. Everything is going to be fine."

The brunette looked at them with hard eyes. They couldn't possibly know what she was feeling. What if Trick was still angry? What if the old man made them leave? He was against Kenzi's way of living, and he'd made it clear the human was just a pet for him. What if he won't help them? And even if, by any slim chance, he did, what could possibly tell them?

"He won't reject you." Lauren said softly.

"How do you know that?" She melted a little more in Lauren.

"Because the gleam in his eyes every time he sees you is one of pure adoration." Lauren kissed softly the other woman's temple. "You are his granddaughter. He loves you."

"I love Kenzi and see what I did."

Dyson scoffed. "_Something_ made you hurt her. And we are here to know what that was." Dyson neared the women, gently placing his hands on the succubus' shoulders. "Lauren is right, he do loves you." He smiled a little. "And I know he's being trying to grow the balls to ask for forgiveness."

Bo frowned. "What do you mean?"

"He means that Trick knows he was wrong and that he wants to be part of your live again. He is just scared."

Dyson nodded. "He's been sad and quiet this whole time, but he thinks what he did to your relationship is beyond repair."

Bo looked at them, first one and then the other, slowly trying to absorb what they were saying. "And you know this because…?"

Dyson cleared his thought. "I've came here once or twice since you two stop speaking. He always asks how you are doing and if you are still too mad."

Lauren averted the other two eyes. A faint blush covered her cheeks. "He'd called sometimes. He talks a little and then he starts asking those same questions." Looking sheepishly at her lover, she added, "He asked not to tell you, though, in case you got mad at me."

Bo sighed and her body slumped against two of the people she could trust her life to. "I guess I've made it difficult to him to really say sorry." Trick had called her too, but she would simply ignore his calls, and the one time she answered without looking at the I.D., she'd hang as quickly as she could.

"Give it a chance." The doctor said softly. "We are here for both you and Kenzi. She needs this. _You_ need this."

XxXxX

Trick's life had always been one adventure after other; since he was a young lad he was always deep into politics or war. That was the way things were. That was the way he was.

But this particular adventure was one he didn't want to be part of. He wasn't ready to be rejected by his only granddaughter, nor was he ready to lose the only bond he still had with his Isabeu. He knew he'd done something stupid, but saying those things about Kenzi hadn't been his intention. Sure, he believed the girl was doing things she shouldn't, and that could get her in serious problems, but he meant to say it as a warning, not as an insult.

He wanted do badly to apologize, to both of them, but he hadn't grow the marbles to visit the club house. Sure, he could always call, but the succubus had made it clear that she was done with him. He hadn't call Kenzi because he knew the hurt he'd caused and he had no idea how to apologize to her, he couldn't offer her all the alcohol of his bar because she already had it, and he could simply ask for forgiveness because his speech had been too harsh. Maybe, just maybe, if he could talk to Bo she could help him find a way to make it all better. But for that, he'd need to first earn Bo's forgiveness and trust back.

He was so centered in his thoughts that he almost didn't hear the door open. Even though it was late in the night the bar was almost empty; apparently his sour mood kept clients away. Looking up he saw something that made him froze for a second, before a huge smile broke on his face.

Just there, entering The Dal, were Lauren and Dyson, and just a step behind them, was his loved granddaughter. Schooling his expression the best way he could, he greet them with a tiny smile. "Dyson, Lauren." He nodded to them. And, letting his smile widen a little, "Bo. What a pleasure."

The doctor and detective nodded in return, while Bo looked at him with pained eyes. "Hi." Her voice was tiny and full of remorse. Her two companions silently sat at the bar, leaving a stool between them, knowing Bo would take it as soon as she felt comfortable at the Dal again.

"Thank you for coming." Trick's voice was also soft, as if afraid talking too loud would scare his granddaughter away. He stared at her for a few minutes, really relived she was there. The silence was thick, but in a way welcomed.

Meanwhile Bo shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot. She wanted to say something, anything, but there was just too much awkwardness in the room. She didn't really looked at the older Fae, but she stale a glance or two every once in a while.

Dyson coughed discreetly startling the succubus, and Lauren smiled at her, encouraging her to move forwards. Bo looked once to the doctor before closing her eyes and taking a bid breath. When she opened them again she looked directly at her grandfather's face. "I'm sorry." That wasn't what she was planning to say, but it was something she needed the other Fae hear. "I'm sorry I was so stubborn and tick headed. Please, forgive me."

The other three were surprised o say the least; they also weren't expecting to hear that. "I'm the one who is sorry." Trick said, sadness lacing his words. "I was the one to treat you both poorly and insulted Kenzi. I was dumb and drunk. I only meant to say that she could get herself in trouble, but it didn't come out that way. I'm sorry." His eyes were sincere, showing exactly how much he meant his words.

"You were right, though." Bo conceded. "She has that habit and I should be the one responsible of her actions and correcting her. I shouldn't be offended like that. For that I'm sorry." She laughed sadly. "I was pissed at nothing really. She's just a human after all, she's disposable."

That made Dyson and Lauren turn to her as one, knowing that wasn't Bo who was talking and silently hoping that the succubus could caught herself in time to avoid hurting herself more.

Trick, on the other hand looked at her as if she had grown another head. "What are you talking about?"

"I mean to say that it doesn't matter what happens to her. She deserves it and should pay for being a burden. I'm glad she's gone." As those words she paled and almost fell to the floor if Dyson hadn't reacted fast enough to catch her by the waits and sat her on the stool. "Oh, God, not again!"

Trick blinked surprised. "What is going on?" He looked from where Bo was resting her head on the bar counter silently shaking. She was curled in the stool and it was a sigh that broke his heart. "What happened?" Because something big should have happened if Bo was acting so strangely.

Lauren looked from where the wolf was quietly murmuring words of comfort to Bo and laid her eyes on the barkeeper. "Kenzi broke something at the Norn's and apparently is making Bo hate her." She smiled sadly. "We were hoping you could help. It usually starts gradually, but now it looks like Bo really wants to kill the girl." And it was true. While the succubus was talking about Kenzi there had been that look of total hate Bo held when she had drained the chi of the Lich and his minions.

"I don't want to hurt her!" Said succubus wailed, as close to tears as she had been all day after leaving the house. "I love her! And I need her!"

"I still don't understand." Trick said quietly.

Dyson looked up from his place near Bo. "Kenzi is gone and we don't know what happened to leave."

"We do!" Bo exclaimed lifting her face. Tears were already running down her face and she couldn't control it. "I took her and locked her in her dresser, all the while yelling at her and telling her exactly how much I hate her! I drove her away!"

At Trick's confused face Lauren elaborated. "Kenzi is deeply afraid to be in enclosed spaces, and the only one that knew that was Bo."

"Wait a minute." Dyson looked at the doctor with wide eyes. "She'd been trapped in a trunk and she wasn't moved by it." He'd heard what had happened at the clubhouse, more or less, he'd known that Bo had hurt and yelled to the human, but he didn't know it was because a stupid closet.

"When did that happened?" Bo asked alarmed. Where had she been when Kenzi suffered like that?

"The day you got to help Mayer. She was locked in the trunk of his nephew's car for most of the day."

"And you didn't tell me why?! She gets awful every time she gets herself trapped in such a small space!"

Dyson was taken aback by that. At the time his bond with the human was nothing for him. He hadn't really look at her other than been Bo's pet, a mere human. Looking back he could tell the girl had shown signs of extreme anxiety and he remembered traces of what could have possibly been tears on her cheeks. He didn't even asked her if she was alright, just lifting her out of the trunk in order to reach the other body. "I didn't know." She murmured, but everybody hear the under tune of it. _I didn't care at the time. _"I'm sorry."

"That's not important right now," Lauren said quietly. "That's in the past and we cannot change it. But we can look for her and make her better."

Trick looked from the remorse filled wolf to the incredulous succubus silently conceding Dyson had been an ass, but not commenting on it. "Can somebody, please, explain to me what happened?"

This time it was Lauren who did all the talking, while a guilty wolf, an offended succubus and a perplexed blood mage listened.

XxXxX

After what looked like hours of pushing and cursing the door finally relented. Making an opening just wide enough for her lithe body to pass through, Kenzi entered the Crypt but had to take some minutes before actually descending the stairs to where a space to really rest laid.

"_You know… this place looks almost the same…" _The man told her.

"That's because we are the only ones to ever come here,"

"_That's not necessarily true…"_

"It isn't a lie, either." Kenzi turned to the stairs, silently cursing for not having some light on her. While the Crypt was big on itself, it was small and dark enough to make her uncomfortable.

She started climbing down, little by little. The stairs were not deep, but they were dangerously sharp and she was certain that any false step could end in a very bad head injury. Not that she really needed to worry, she had those steps memorized so well that she could possibly descend the stairs with the eyes closed and backwards.

"_But… still be careful…"_

"I know, I know." Kenzi muttered in response. Even though the man was great company, she got tired of his annoying habit of pointing out obvious things.

But, the lack of food, sleep and comfort made it difficult to be really in tune with what happened around her. Losing her footing it was almost instantly the way her head hit the sharp edge of a step and she succumbed to darkness.

XxXxX

_Sasha had her eyes closed tightly, just to see a little in the whole darkness. The small room she was in was filled with barely visible shadows, so if she shut her eyes as hard as she could small dots of light appeared making the blackness a little more bearable. The space was small, yes, but her huddled small figure in the corner of the closet left most of the floor room free. Even though her arms were around herself and that she had pulled several clothes from their hanging place to make a small nest around her frail body, she was freezing. Not even the three sweaters she had on could fight the chill that was now permanent on her bones._

_Her skinny knees were scratched, just where she felt when he hurried her to her room by the arm. Her wrists were purple, there where he had forced her onto the floor and pinned her there. There were small bruises along her body, silent witnesses of the power of that man, but nobody would be the wiser. Not too long ago that man had started to throw away her precious clothes and started buying her things with long sleeves and tick, itchy materials, especially thought to hide the marks on her body._

_Her shaking hands pulled tightly at her hair's roots, just enough to feel something besides the pressure in her chest and the pain below her waist. Tears ran down her face, but the sobs had stopped some time ago. There was no need for them; noise was that started everything after all. Be it her laughter, her crying, her playing or her talking. If she made a noise just above a mouse whisper she was doomed._

_She'd lost count of how many hours she'd been locked, but previous experience told her it should been several by now. Her bladder was killing her, but she knew better than to let go in there… he'd be pissed._

_He always was when something like that happened. At night, she couldn't help it. Not when her dreams were plagued by the things he did, the things he whispered, the things he hid from her Mama. Sure she knew he punished her, she was aware of the lock ups in the closet and the beatings, but she didn't know the reason for them, she didn't really care._

_She was never really around; she was always out, shopping, gambling, gossiping or simply drinking her day away. To her she didn't matter; she was, after all, just an imaginative small girl that liked to see things were they weren't and that liked to hear things that weren't spoken._

_A small whimper left her lips when she heard heavy footsteps getting closer to her. A sob escaped her when the lock of the door started turning._

_Maybe just this once things would be different._

_Maybe this was Nika, back from work._

_Maybe it was her Mama, ready to hug her and chase away all her fears._

_The door opened._

_A wide shadow obscured the view from the rest of the room. It wasn't lanky, like her brother's, nor curvaceous like her Mama's._

"_Ready to play, little girl?" His deep voice ran in the space._

_So much for wishing this to be different at least once. _

XxXxX

Vex stood at the entrance of the long a go visited cemetery. It had been years since he last had gone in there. He was a relatively young Fae, there was not really a reason to visit; his family was still alive and well back in England living the years away with their various family business.

He had visited the human cemetery just once, and that had been a painful experience. The human he lost was long gone, and while he had been so sure that he would never place a feet on 'holy' ground again, here he was, ready to enter and face old memories.

Taking a deep breath he took a step and crossed the ground most humans thought as normal. The air around him was deep with pain and mourning, and he could easily smell the despair of those who wept for their loved ones. It was an awful experience, one he really didn't wanted to live again, the loss of someone loved enough to be considered a partner.

He kept walking, trying hard not to notice the couple of people that were kneeled in front of some graves. Sorrow widows, orphan children, abandoned friends, everyone who died left behind someone crying for them, and his chest ached remembering that unbelievable pain, only compared to the slashing of an axe that he had felt once, not too long ago.

He soon arrived to where he believed the two most important people in his life were. The crypt's door was already open, just barely, and he smiled sadly knowing all his guessing had been correct and hurting because that meant too many horrible truths for someone he was sure didn't deserved the life she had.

Steeling himself yet again, he opened the door all the way, entering the dark chamber and noticing the sharp steps not too far of where he was. He remembered the place from many years ago, so when he stepped down to the main chamber he saw almost immediately something that didn't belong there.

Sprawled on the floor, not too far away from where the steps ended and the actual resting place started was a lithe body, which was spamming constantly. He could easily see the raven hair and the pale face, but he didn't need to look to know who the woman was. Getting closer he could made out some blood on the floor, blood that kept oozing from a small cut on the back of the girl's head. At simple glance there were no broken bones, but the smell emanating from the girl was disgusting and he had to force his gag reflex down.

He could easily see why the girl stunk: her pants were drenched in urine and, oddly enough, in blood. Also, her skin was dirty with sweat and smudges were visible in her arms and legs, were the clothes she was wearing were tore.

"Oh, Kitten…" He tasked as he came closer. "What have you done?" Gently, trying to not think about the mess the girl would surely do to his new jacket; he picked her up and cradled her to his chest. The girl automatically started trashing weakly, not enough to be a real bother, but it did made it a little difficult for Vex to hold her correctly. Step by step he turned to climb the stairs again, minding her cargo, but something caught his eye. In the middle of the room a rock coffin sat, the name was written in its original script, but he could easily read the name: Nikolaj Ivannovy Volkov, July 13, 1985- October 23, 2006.

"Kolya," He whispered the nickname and somehow that made it even more real.

He had believed that nothing could make him come back to this crypt, nothing would give him the excuse to visit this graveyard and absolutely nothing would make him remember. That name had hunted him for years, and now he had in his arms someone from a past that should have been buried with that body. He looked down at his cargo and couldn't help but recognize, at last, why the girl had been so important to him and why she had grown so close in his heart.

"Kenzi, why didn't you tell me?" he wondered aloud.

Asides for the soft whimpers coming out the girl's mouth, nobody answered.

XxXxX

"Is a poison!" Dyson exclaimed in surprise. "Kenzi was poisoned."

"What?" Bo said lifting her eyes form the book she was skimming.

They had been reading form Trick's immense library for hours now. The four of them had huddled together in the back after the Bloodmage had closed the bar clamming a family emergency. At first there had been little to no progress, Trick not even knowing what they were talking about when they mentioned the Phobos' Dream.

It was Dyson who had come across the ancient tome that talked about the under-faes one should probably avoid at all costs. While the book was ancient beyond Trick's times, it was still easily read by the old wolf and very educational. Sadly what he had read was not something he wanted to ever be true.

"Is poison." Dyson said trying to explain his discovery. "When someone, be it Fae or human, is confronted by a Pain-Eater more often than nor it manages to make them drink a poison that would end their lives. You know that, you've defeated one before."

Lauren blinked at that. "What? When?" She turned to the succubus gauging her reaction.

"I did?" Bo asked surprised.

Trick, from his part, already understood where everything was going and dread fell upon him. "The very first time you fought against under-fae. The same battle when you declared yourself unaligned."

"Right. The dude with the strange hands." Bo nodded in realization. "The one Kenzi saved me from."

"That's the one." Dyson smiled a little feeling grateful of the human for that. "Remember what he was offering you to drink?"

"It was something viscous and smelly, but not in a bad way. It was also really hot, and while it was repulsive, it really was tempting to drink it." Bo shook her head. "If Kenzi hadn't broken the spell I was under, I'm not sure what could have happened."

"You mean you actually broke from a Pain-Eater spell?" Lauren asked in awe. "That's impossible."

Dyson nodded. "She did. But that's in the past and we are glad it's over, but there is a bigger problem now. That poison is made from leftovers of the pain and fear a Pain-Eater extract from its victims." He read again the passage he had found. "The poison varies from Pain-Eater to Pain-Eater, and the older the under-fae is the more power it accumulates and the stronger the poison is."

"What does this have to do with Kenzi?" Lauren asked somewhat scared of the answer.

"According to this," he mentioned the book, "when someone drinks the poison under the Pain-Eater spell the poison literally take the pain and fear out of the person drinking it and death is instantly. This state of the poison is called Keres' Enchantment, because of the pain and suffering caused, if briefly, by it. But, if somehow someone drinks or is touched by it in the 'living' world, then the poison takes another course of action entirely." Dyson looked up and looked into Bo's eyes, trying to convince himself that she wouldn't fly off the handle. "This state of the poison makes every one of the person's fears and pains to start being real, even the ones that occurred in the past. Every little fear someone have about something, it becomes true. Every bad memory, very pain ever felt, starts been felt again, both physically and emotionally. Every time the person is close to sleep, or is dreaming, the reality of the fear is stronger, and so it's the pain. Because of it this is called the Dream of the Fear, or, in other words, Phobos' Dream."

XxXxX

Vex looked at the girl sleeping on his couch. The girl had been turning and tossing around for the better part of six hours, but he couldn't wake her up, it was clear the girl needed her rest, even though he could almost physically feel the pain she was in.

Being a heartless Fae had its perks sometimes, but certainly seeing someone important suffer wasn't one on of them, no matter how much he wanted to live his own reputation, when it came to the human girl it was simply impossible. It had been strange, how their relationship started. Who could imagine that just criticizing a show could make bridges between people such as themselves?

If he was honest with himself the girl had caught his eyes long before they had the chance to properly interact. Everybody in the county knew about the unaligned succubus and her human pet, the one that had helped to overcome the Gathering and defeat, in an unlikely way, the pain eater. It was the first time somebody had ever seen something like that happening, not only the human had managed somehow to enter the glass factory without being detected, but she also was able to reach Bo's mind even when she was under the spell of the under-Fae. That was something that simply didn't happened. The guards around the place had been Faes with amazingly developed hunting senses; Faes that should had absolutely sense a human enter the place.

Also, the way she could pull Bo out of the spell was something new. If he had heard correctly only Kenzi's voice had been enough to pull her back to reality. Just wow.

"…Gah…" The soft groan made him look back at the girl. She kept tossing around and that made Vex frown… nobody moved like that when they had been knocked unconscious. At least she didn't stink anymore.

Vex, being the thoughtful boss he was, had ordered Georgia from the bar and commanded her to wash Kenzi the best she could and dressed her in clean clothes. Thankfully for them, Kenzi had spent a night in his house before, leaving some clothes behind. Maybe a pair of shorts and a tank top wasn't exactly what he'd wanted for her, but at least she was clean again.

He hated seeing the girl like that and had thought of cleaning her himself, but held against it. Even thought he had to endure the smell longer than he should have, he couldn't see her naked. He cared too much for that, it was wrong. And knowing who she really was made it worst. He couldn't do that to her, to him, not after all this time.

"… Is she going to be alright, Master?" Georgia asked in a whisper looking at her master. The bartender had been dismissed an hour ago, but the friendship she had made with the girl had made her beg her master to stay. It had been the first time she had put up a fight, but it was for Kenzi, so he had let her.

Vex looked at her with sad eyes for a minute before answering. "I really hope so." He sighed. "You better leave, I need you at the bar."

Georgia bit her bottom lip and nodded slightly. She turned her gaze again to the girl and sighed. People like her didn't deserve to suffer like that. Sure the thief was almost always happy, but Georgia knew it was an act, she could feel the pain in the girl, after all, not everybody felt for the girl's masks. She got up and headed for the door, Vex following close behind, in part to show her to the door and in part because he couldn't see the girl like that much longer.

Both Dark Fae left the room silently. Kenzi still moaned in her sleep and moved around, little by little sweat had started to form over her body, but neither had seemed to notice. They hadn't notice either how as the minutes passed bruises started to form in her wrist, nor did they notice the small path of blood that was starting to leave the young human crotch.

XxXxX

_Young Sasha stared. _

_She couldn't stop staring._

_It was impossible. _

_It had been ages since she last have had an accident like this one. Her Mama was going to kill her slowly and painfully. When she was younger her Mama was always yelling at her because of this… she had hated her because of his._

_Maybe it had to do with the games that man always liked to play with her… that must be. Everything went back to the games he liked to play… he had played with her last night, like always._

_Well, it wasn't like always. Not really._

_That man liked to play at day; when her Mama was out and when Nika wasn't around. He had said it was because the game where especially made for her, but she wasn't so sure. He liked to play with her almost as soon as he was done punishing her. Sometimes it was the belt she received; sometimes it was only his hand, but, no matter what he hit her with, more often than not she found herself inside that damned closet for hours._

_Once she was out then he'd decide it was time to play. _

_They had been playing for years now… at least since she started living with him. She had been three when her Mama had married the bastard. It didn't matter she was really small back then, she remembered when he started shouting at her, locking her in the closet, hitting her. And playing with her._

_But, was it really playing?_

_The game made her sick. And cry._

_It was gross, messy and, in some cases, painful. Especially if she needed to use her mouth, which always had a foul taste after they were done. So, yes, it was painful, but she had never felt the pain she had felt the night before._

_Last night's game was strange and scary, mainly because of two entirely different causes. The first one, it had been in the middle of the night. Nika was away, working in a small music store, Dima was with him and she knew Yura was going to start working with them as soon as he turned eighteen. Her Mama was out too, it was poker night and somehow her reunion had run long… she knew her Mama was most likely passed out somewhere with her girlfriends._

_Maybe that was why HE had been so mad. Maybe that was why HE had changed the playing. He had needed to punish someone, and she was the only one home._

_The second thing that made everything different was that this time she wasn't allowed to keep her clothes on. No, he had wanted to play with her just like she came to Earth. Although it was uncomfortable the worst part had been went he had put IT in places where she had hurt, badly. This time it hadn't been enough her hands and mouth, no, but her whole body._

_She signed. She had no time to dwell on what had happened, she needed to clean the mess she had done after he had left. Her Mama couldn't see it._

_With trembling knees the naked girl gathered her urine soaked sheets from the bed and, after putting on her pajamas, she left to wash them._

_She was so concerned to clean the bed that she didn't pay attention to the pain between her legs, nor the patches of red on her sheets and legs._

XxXxX

_Fate – monstrous and empty,  
you whirling wheel, you are malevolent,_

_Fate is against me in health and virtue,  
driven on and weighted down,  
always enslaved. _

_**O Fortuna (Carl Orff, 1930)**_


	5. Veniality

"What does that mean?" Bo asked when the words the wolf had said sunk in.

"That means that every pain she'd ever feel, every fear she'd have, it'll become true." Trick translated.

Bo shook her head. "Does that mean that whatever she'd feel in her past is coming back?"

"No." Dyson said sadly. "It means that all the traumas she'd gone through are coming back, both physically and emotionally." Looking again at the book he continued. "It also means that whatever fear she has in the moment, any insecurity, is going to be true."

"Okay, I get the girl is going to hurt. But, what does it have to do with my behavior?" Bo questioned, truly alarmed.

Lauren, up until that moment silent trying to process things, spoke. "If Kenzi ever feared that you would hurt her, then you'd would."

Everybody looked at the doctor, trying to find wrong in her words. "But I wouldn't hurt her like that! She must've known that!" Bo practically yelled, sinking in the chair in front her grandfather's desk.

"It's not about what you'd do, or what she knows. Is about what she fears the most." Trick answered kindly. "I doubt she'd fear you, but I do believe that girl is always waiting for you to throw her out."

Bo looked up, tears pooling in her eyes. "What do you mean?"

"That means Kenzi would be ever by your side up until you get tired of her, but wouldn't put up a figth if you ever decide to left without her." Trick said sadly.

Bo shook her head. "I'd never leave her." She looked at Lauren with sad eyes. "You believe me, right?"

Lauren smiled softly at the succubus. "Of course I do. But that doesn't' mean you wouldn't do it. At least not on purpose."

Dyson shot up from where he had been previously seating, startling everybody. "She won't leave on her own, that's for sure." He started pacing. "One of the things I've always admire of her is that she'd do anything for you, for us." He looked at the succubus with tears of his own. There was something utterly sad and disturbing, seeing the proud, fierce wolf holding back tears. "She once told me that she could easily kill herself if that meant for us to live."

"What?... When was that?" Bo's question was just above a whisper.

Dyson shook and stopped walking, yet he never looked up from the spot on the floor his gaze fixed out of shame. "The day we went for Garuda the first time." Blinking, a lone tear ran down his face. "She… she saved me and I couldn't figure out why. Why would a girl like her stay hidden for hours under dead bodies just to get me out of there?" Looking up he met brown shimmering eyes. "I asked her why. She simply said she was disposable and more trouble than help, but we were strong, we needed to fight. She told me she would do anything for us. I joked and asked her if she was willing to take her life for Lauren's." He sighed and looked at Lauren, an unreadable look in his eyes, knowing his words would make the doctor start seeing the youngest human with other eyes. "She said yes."

Bo and Lauren just looked at him, perplexed beyond reason. Kenzi was known for her hatred towards the doctor, the younger human wasn't thrilled with the concept of sharing her Bo with another non-Fae. If that was so, then why did she say that?

Trick looked between the trio. Something smelled fishy. "What did she do?"

Bo blinked. "What do you mean? She went after the Norn. That's what she did!"

"No." The oldest Fae said shaking his head. "What did she do to prove she'd do anything for Lauren?"

"She pointed a gun to me." Dyson confessed, furrowing his eyebrows. "And she actually pulled the trigger."

"What?!" Lauren asked surprised. "How?"

The wolf sighed. "She said something like she was getting tired of my unconsidered self. She was actually angry. Fortunately the girl knows how to shoot and shot at the ground next to me."

"Serves you right." The succubus said under her breath, consciously ignoring the fact that her bestie knew how to use a gun and the fact that she had been carrying one.

Trick, though, needed to know. "Where did she get the gun?"

Dyson blushed faintly. "It was mine." Shrugging his shoulders, his blush deepened. "I guess she stole it not long after she rescued me. She did scare me, but give it back after making her point clear."

"You haven't changed much, though." Bo said loud enough for all the hear.

The other Fae looked at the ground ashamed. "I know. And I'm sorry." He locked eyes with Lauren, knowing she was the one he'd made suffer the most. "I swear I won't be a pain in the ass anymore."

Just as the succubus was going to call him bluff on that one a strange noise interrupted them. It was a barking sound. Jumping in surprise the four occupants of the Dal blinked, trying to make sense where the sound was coming from.

Dyson was the first one to recover from the shock and turned to look at Bo. "Look likes it's you." He simply tilted his head and looked at her breast.

"Stop that." She snarled covering her torso with one hand and reaching in the valley that made her breasts to retrieve a purple, ringing phone. Looking at it she smiled sadly. "It's just an alarm." She informed them before turning Kenzi's cellphone off. "Apparently today is the premier of _Terror Night's._" Despite the tension that made everybody laugh.

"So…" Trick said after his chuckles died down. "What are we going to do?"

"Find her, and make her see we love her, and cure her… somehow." Bo said with conviction. _At least we know what it is._

"How?" Lauren asked her girlfriend.

"Leave that to me." Trick said, the tome of his voice mimicking easily Bo's. "I now know what it is, so it'll be easier to look for cures. I'll also call some friends, they outa know something."

Dyson nodded, surely Trick was the better fit to keep looking. "Meanwhile we'll search for Kenzi." He looked at the females. "Where could she be?"

Everybody kept quiet, Trick silently making his way to his other books to keep reading. Lauren stared at the phone in Bo's hand for a minute, while Dyson and Bo tried to think of answers. "Wait a minute… hasn't Kenzi got like a really big family?" The other two looked at her like she had two heads. "Yeah, I mean, she's always talking about her cousins and aunts, right?"

"That's true." Dyson said.

"But how can we get in touch with them?" Bo asked the air.

Lauren just coughed and pointed to the phone still in the succubus' hand.

XxXxX

Vex couldn't believe his eyes. He'd left the girl for less than thirty minutes and she'd managed to make a mess of herself. The clean shorts were now soiled in urine and blood, her face was red in several spots, just as she'd scratched herself while sleeping and, strangely enough there were dark bruises in places there shouldn't had been.

"Kitten, what have you done?" He lectured the still unconscious girl. "You'd have been sleeping still."

The Mesmer shook his head in amazement and disgust at the way the lithe girl was whiting in the couch, her whimpers barely audible but loud enough to make him wonder if the girl was having a nightmare or a sexual dream.

_How can she be having sexual dream in my house? In my couch?! _He thought angrily, he was going to make sure the little cunt was going to be put in her place.

XxXxX

_Sasha could hear clicking heels approaching the living room. She looked up from her homework and saw her Mama all dressed up in a bright red dress and black pumps. Her short blonde hair shone in the mid afternoon light that came from the huge windows in the room._

"_Be good darling, I'm going to the Smith's." Her Mama told her as she came over to rub the top of her head._

"_I'm always good Mama." Sasha answered in a small voice. What used to be a loud child became really fast into a shy and silent girl. She was only six, but she knew not to talk above normal voice anymore. She liked to sing and dance still, so not everything was lost yet._

_He Mama sighed. "No baby, you are not. So please, today be good." _

_The girl frowned at that. She was good. She always did what she was told and she even stopped shouting in the house. What else could she do to be better?_

"_Promise, baby?" Her Mama asked when her daughter didn't answer, still caressing her head._

_Sasha frown intensified. "When are you coming back?" She refused to promise something that she already did and she didn't want to be alone in the house, again._

_This time the one to frown was the older woman. "I'll be back when I need to get back." The hand rubbing her head stopped and her voice came out angry, making the little girl regret instantly what she had asked._

"_Sorry Mama." Small tears gathered in the corner of her eyes and she lowered her head as the older woman started for the front door. "I'll be good."_

"_You better be. Or else you'll earn a beating." That last words hurt worse than nothing. She was good! It was not her fault that THAT man was always looking for excuses to beat her… and her Mama thought that was right. _

_She sighed and kept doing her homework while trying to ignore the silence that hung in the room. The house that once had been the best place she had ever seen was now just a big cage where she was forbidden to do anything. She couldn't go into the kitchen because she was too small to reach the cereal and standing in chairs was too dangerous, not mentioning that the stuff she usually liked was too high also for her to reach._

_She couldn't enter Nika's room because the seventeen years old boy was really private and didn't want anybody in there. Sure, when he was in the house Sasha was more than welcome to spend the time with his brother and cousins in there, but she couldn't enter on her own… even if she really wanted to play with his drums._

_She couldn't go to the basement because she got locked in once, nor she couldn't leave the house to visit a friend. She also couldn't enter the TV room because THAT man convinced her Mama that she spent the whole day watching cartoons if she was not around._

_She couldn't enter her Mama's room after that time when she accidentally caught her and THAT man in the middle of a game, a game so similar of the one he liked to play with her sometimes._

_So little Sasha cried softly at her Mama's harsh words while she did her homework and hoped that she or Nika would come back home before THAT man so that she could play a little while without wondering when he would appear and find an excuse to punish her._

XxXxX

"I can't believe this." Bo said to the air. "The girl doesn't have a number in her phone… not even mine."

Lauren blinked at that. They were currently in the clubhouse, both she and Dyson waiting for Bo to make the call. They had to return home; apparently the show's alarm was the last straw for the short-lived battery, so they had to plug in the device for a few minutes in order to turn the phone on.

"How can that be possible?" Dyson asked the question in everybody's mind.

Lauren shook her head. "Maybe she didn't want anybody close to her family." She shrugged, it made sense to her. "I wouldn't want people knowing your number, and, from what I'd heard, her family is not into legal business."

"Yeah, maybe you are right." Bo frowned before looking into the phone's call log. "Well, here is my number…" she kept scrolling, her frown making itself deeper with each passing second. "And the pizza number, and… that's it."

Dyson quirked an eyebrow, not really believing what she was saying. "Let me see that." Quickly checking the list he smiled a little when his more accurate eyes came across a number the succubus had missed. "Here, that number is different." He passed the phone so that Bo could see it.

"No, that's my number."

Lauren looked over her lover's shoulder, slightly smiling and what she saw. "No Bo, yours end with a sixty-nine, remember?" She chuckled slightly. "That one has a ninety-six."

"Oh." It was all the brunette could say. She really missed that little fact… but it wasn't like she called herself on daily basis; that was Lauren's and Kenzi's job. "Let's call, shall we?" Before waiting for an answer she dialed the number in her own phone, not trusting her bestie had paid hers, and pressed the call button.

_Ring…_

_Ring…_

_Ring…_

"_Madam Lavinia, at your service. I can predict your future, reveal your past, and, for a considerate sum of coins, tie the love of your life to you." _After a beat. "_How may I help you?"_

Bo was shocked. Why didn't she thing of _her_. The heavily Russian accent was familiar to her, and even if the name was not the same, she knew instantly who she was. "Aunt Ludmilla?"

There was a pause in the other end of the line. _"Who are you and how you came across this number?!"_

"Whoa, whoa, calm down." The succubus looked at the blondes confused. "I'm Bo. Kenzi's friend."

"_Bo!" _It didn't take the older female a second to recognize who was talking in the other end of the phone. _"Such a nice surprise, hear from you."_

"Yea-"

"_Kenzi hadn't really talked to me after the last time we met. She only called to tell me you two made it fine home."_

"About tha-"

"_Such nice ladies like yourselves wouldn't be playing like that. No, magic and drugs don't mix well."_

"What are you talking about? I don't-"

"_Of course you know what I'm talking about!" _The seer chuckled. _"The whole Baba Yaga fiasco! The drugs we were in were really good, you need to tell Kenzi to share a little bit more of that with me next time."_

"Aunt Ludmilla!" Bo finally yelled after being cut so many times. "Please, listen to me!"

"_I'm listening, girl. No need to yell."_

Bo sighed. At least she knew where her little sister got the talking habit. "Listen, I lost Kenzi." At the way she formed that sentence both Dyson and Lauren exchanged looks. "Do you know where to find her?" She'd had more questions, especially some concerning their time with Baba Yaga, but she figured that the time the older woman was going to be silent was going to be short.

"_Kenzi? You haven't heard from Kenzi? Maybe she left." _Her tone was casual, not concerned at all. _"She does that."_

"What do you mean?" Bo tried not to let her heart break at the indifference she was receiving from the other female. The older woman was happier talking about drugs than her own nice, and it made the succubus wonder exactly what kind of family the little con was from.

"_She leaves. She stays in a place for a while, then leaves." _Bo had to take the phone from her ear. Aunt Ludmilla laughed, really laughed, a deep rich and loud sound. _"I'm marveled she lasted this long in the city. She never stayed for more than a night. You must have done something good."_

"I don't understand." And Bo didn't really do. At the look of confusion coming from the other two occupants she simply put the phone on speaker, just in time to all of them to listen to what the old human had to say.

"_Kenzi ran away when she was eight. She never came back home. Years passed since we knew something about her, but sometimes she'd call me. She never told me where she went or how she was doing." _A soft sigh came from the speakers; her voice became softer, more serious. The trio listened with frowns in their faces. _"I believe she only called a bunch of times before she met you… Once was soon after my sons died."_

Bo gulped. She couldn't believe this human was opening up to her in this way. "I'm sorry to hear that." She didn't know what else to say, but loosing someone, especially someone close, was hard for anyone. She couldn't even imagine losing two of her kin… just Kenzi was enough.

"_It's alright. It was years ago. Although I don't know how she knew." _A small chuckle, a little sad this time made Lauren tear up a little. _"Anyway, running away it's what our little Kenzi does."_

Bo was going to contradict what the older woman was going to say but was distracted by Dyson, who was mouthing something for her. Widening her eyes at her lousy thinking she asked what he wanted to hear. "What about her cousins? Maybe you have their number or something?"

A deep chuckle ran in the tense space. _"None of them have heard from the girl. I'm the only one that has seen her since the day she left." _They could hear the widening smile through the phone. _"I could give you the number of all my nephews, but I'm sure most of them think of her as dead."_

Lauren and Bo exchanged a look. Something there was amiss. "But, she's always speaking of her cousins. She phones them constantly."

"_Oh, then, give me a name and I'll give you their number. I have so many from where to share."_

Bo smiled, at least they were getting somewhere. "Ok. She's always calling Yura and Dima."

A second passed, then another. Bo guessed the numbers where hard to get mostly because of the many cousins Kenzi had. But what they were answered was shocking in so many levels.

"_Those were my boys' names." _Aunt Ludmilla tone was steady, controlled in anger. _"Please don't use them to prank people. They are six feet under, have a little respect." _There was a small pause where the trio tried to process what was exactly happening. _"Try looking for Aleksandra Ivannova Volkova."_

And with that the line went dead.

XxXxX

Vex looked down. The lithe girl was under him, silently shivering in his hold. One hand had hers pinned above her head, while the other hovered just over her throat, itching to squeeze.

'_Little cunt! Still moaning in my bloody couch!' _He thought angrily seeing the girl move around beneath him. He was going to teach the stupid human an unforgettable lesson.

Slowly, smiling just a tiny bit, his fingers grasped the slender neck before him. He held lightly, just enough to feel the girl's heart beating. His smile widened when he applied a little more pressure and the girl instantly responded to him.

Kenzi's breath became even shallower and she started squirming with more force. Behind her eyelids he could see clearly how her eyes moved at a rapid pace and how from the corner of her eyes small tears began to gather. The shiver that was ever so present not only intensified, but also her teeth started chattering as soon as the hand enclosed totally around her neck.

The mere image before him made him instantly hard.

He let go of her hands knowing without thinking that she would keep them in place… she surely had enough practice at this. His now free hand started massaging the outside of her breast, silently marveling at the whimper that came from her lips and caressed his hand around her neck so deliciously.

His eyes turned black in lust. This girl was going to have the lesson of her life.

XxXxX

"_Do not make a sound!" the deep voice whispered roughly in her ear._

_It was the middle of the night, the snow outside making the air as cold as her body. The room was quietly lit by the streetlight that filtered through the pink blinds in the massive window near her closet just enough to let her see what was happening before her._

_A clammy hand held her firmly by the neck, making her whimpers quieter. She could feel the tears running down her cheeks and her nose was running like never before, but it didn't matter. None all it mattered. There were worst things going on._

_Rough digits slowly made their way down her side and up again. The feeling of the calluses running over her bare skin made her shiver, especially when those passed just at the outside of her breasts._

"_Be quite!" He whispered with more force. "You don't want Mama dear to hear you, do you?"_

_The girl only whimpered and fought with herself to keep her hands above her head, where the man had left them._

"_No, you don't want her to know what a dirty little girl you are." He flickered at finger at her nipple, making her whimper harder. "No, you don't want her to find the ways you like to play with me… no…"_

_Grey eyes looked hurt at the man. She wasn't dirty, she didn't like to play these games, but she didn't have a choice. She had been too loud, too edgy. This is what she deserved, or so he told her. But she didn't believe it. She knew in her heart this wasn't right, this was sick. Even her Babka thought so._

"_You are going to be a good little girl, aren't ya?" The man moaned as he caressed her non-existent breast. "Yes, a good little girl."_

_She knew squirming was a bad idea, it only led to beatings. She also knew she wouldn't cry out, and not because of his hand around her neck, ready to cut her air supply, no, it was because there was nobody to call. Nika was out with Yura, again. Both were working over a bar trying to save money to start their own band. And her Mama was passed out in their room, drunk again for the third time this week. She knew that she would wake her up if she did cry, but it only would led the woman to slam the door shut and the man whipping her ass with the belt, again._

_So, when the rough hands descended to her panties' elastic band, she could only cry harder and pray he finally killed her._

XxXxX

Bo blinked at the phone in her hand, now silent. "What the…" Lauren and Dyson too stared at the succubus, both silently asking her to explain. Looking at them she sighed. "That was Kenzi's Aunt." She shook her head. "The important stuff she said you'd already heard… I don't really understand, though."

Lauren smiled sadly. "Neither do we. But at least we now know nobody have seen her. At least nobody blood related."

Dyson sighed. They were getting nowhere. "I'll look out for the name she gave us. Maybe she is a friend and can actually say us something about Kenzi."

Bo and Lauren looked at the man leave the clubhouse with somber eyes. At least Dyson could come up with more information if there was some to be found, and maybe that way they could actually come close to find Kenzi.

"You know…" Bo said, her voice cold. "She has us running in circles again." She chuckled darkly. "The stupid girl is so messed up not even her family know where she could be. I'm really tired of this."

Lauren shook her head, knowing it was not her lover speaking, but the curse Kenzi had managed to cast over her. Yet, she could attest the succubus was tired. The doctor herself was tired. They had been looking for the better part of three days and none of them had gotten much sleep. Sure, the human had managed to catch a little of sleep in between 'hunts', sleeping curled in Tricks sofa while the Fae researched, or crashing in the back seat of Dyson's car whenever they moved places.

But Bo was different. After Lauren had forced them to sleep for some hours before starting Kenzi's hunt the succubus had not gotten any sleep and it noted. Dark, puffy bags rested under the brunette's red and tired eyes. The Fae was ready to drop in any instant.

"Bo, love," she said in a calm voice. "Why don't we go to bed for a couple of hours? At least until Dyson comes back."

The succubus looked at her lover with a raised eyebrow. She knew she was tired and that she needed to sleep, so when the blonde pouted just a little bit she nodded.

Holding hands the blonde guided their way to Bo's room in the second floor. Just as they were passing Kenzi's room Bo stopped, halting the doctor who was just about going to walk off. "Something the matter, Bo?"

The succubus sighed, the flare of anger she had felt just moments ago long forgotten. "I really miss her." And with that she continued to the room. They changed quickly and climbed into bed, lying silently besides one another, facing the ceiling.

Lauren sighed some minutes later, after letting the silence help her to digest what the seer had told them she turned to the brunette. "Tell me what you are thinking."

Bo laughed, it was shallow and sorrowful. "Kenzi told me once she started running away when she was ten… but I thought that was when she started leaving her house for long periods of time or something." She looked into brown, sad, eyes. "I know I did. I mean, I used to leave for hours and hide in the barn or in a friend's house. I'd run away and then I'd come back… I thought that was what she meant. Not that she actually left her house at that age… I mean, she wasn't even that old when she escaped." Tears pooled at the succubus eyes. "What could have possible happened to her to leave at such a young age?"

"I don't know Bo." Lauren eyes filled with tears at the obvious pain her lover was feeling. "I really don't know."

XxXxX

She gasped. Blue eyes shot open, tears streaming down her cheeks. The feelings were so familiar, so horrible that she knew not to move asides from that. Her eyes scanned the room rapidly before resting in the man above him and stilling when recognition downed on her.

Vex stopped at the different sound that came from the girl. His legs were at either sides of the petite girl's thighs and his left hand kept holding her by the neck, but this time his free hand was working to lose his pants.

He looked at impossibly wide eyes, the blue was barely visible with her pupils dilated as much as they could, and entailing the fear she was feeling. It only made him harder. This girl was deliciously afraid of him and both the depredator and the lust filled man in him were more than ready to break the little girl beneath him.

Kenzi for her part kept looking at him. This wasn't possible. This was a sick joke. Vex was a friend, _her_ friend. She was sure he was the last friend she had after losing Bo. The hand around her neck tightened and she realized the truth.

This man above her was not a friend.

He was another powerful man trying to dictate her place in the world. Oh, boy, how wrong she was for thinking that this was a mistake, that maybe he hadn't realized who she was or what he was doing. He just wanted to have her. Just like _him_.

She closed her eyes. Tears kept running down her cheeks and silent sobs started building in her chest. She hurt everywhere. She was scared. She felt powerless. She was tired. She wanted out. She _needed _out. She couldn't go on like this. She just couldn't.

But maybe, just maybe he could be different from _that_ man a little. Maybe Vex could be nice enough to grant her wish, he sure was powerful enough. Hell, he may even enjoy doing as she asked him.

She opened her eyes again. This time her gaze wasn't focused on Vex, no. It was focused past his shoulder where three men were trying in vain to get him off of her. The one with the long ponytail punching his face, the oldest one, the one with the chain, tried to push Vex's body from the couch, and the younger one, the one with the Mohawk, was trying to pull the offending hand from her neck, yet looked strangely at the Mesmer. Their translucent hands went easily through the body atop her, and although she could hear the angry yells directed at the Fae, Vex didn't flinch or moved.

She locked eyes with the man with the youngest man. Both their eyes the same pale color, just as wide and once full with life. She nodded a little to him and she saw how he shook his head frantically, silently asking her to have hope.

She knew it was futile, she needed this to end.

Frowning Vex looked how the girl's gaze came back to him. Long was gone the spark that once lived behind those strong, honest eyes. In its place was something he couldn't believe to see in Kenzi's pale orbs. Defeat. The girl was giving up.

The lithe body beneath him relaxed, the tension leaving her chest, the tears stopping altogether and a small sad smile graced her features. "Please…" She said in an incredible small voice, just like the one of a little child. "Please, when you are done, please…" She looked deep in his eyes, begging, pleading, imploring. "… please, kill me."

The Mesmer froze at those words. _What the hell am I doing? _He shook himself from the fog in his mind came rushing back with the memory of what had happened, of what was about to happen. In a flash he was off the girl, his lust and hunger forgotten, and leaped to the other side of the room.

"Kenzi…" He tried to come up with and excuse, but none came to mind.

"Please, Vex, finish this and kill me." Tears started running again, her eyes locked with his again. "Please."

The Mesmer shook his head. This was definitely not right. He started backing away from where Kenzi tried to get up, only to crash down on the couch again in pain. He needed help. Bo was help.

Keeping an eye on the girl he reached for his phone on the back pocket of his loose pants and dialed.

He just hoped he could stay in focus while the chivalry arrived.

XxXxX

_Searching for what she can't find  
For her own peace of mind  
She can't forgive, nor forget the past  
These ineffable feelings and hurt that last evermore  
Bewail the truth, the face of fate, and conquer all the past_

_**Veniality (Epica, 2003)**_


	6. Angel Without Wings

She laid with her eyes wide open. Next to her Lauren was dozing lightly, the events of the last days catching up with her. She was exhausted, but the worry and guilt was making it impossible for the succubus to try and rest.

She wondered where her little girl was. She wondered if she had eaten, or if she had somewhere to sleep at night. The girl was reckless and had the habit of forgetting simple things like eating. Sure, she was a bottomless pit, but more often than not someone had to remember her to eat something besides chocolates and sweets. The girl was just that careless.

Now that she thought about it, Kenzi had to be usually ordered around. The girl had to be sent to bed more often than not if Bo wanted to avoid crankiness from her girl in the mornings, and if nobody looked how much alcohol she drank, the girl ended trashed in the bar, making the Fae around uncomfortable.

In a way she could understand why Trick was wondering why the girl's habits where not fixed. She knew the little human was pretty much doing whatever she wanted whenever she wanted… but Bo was sure the girl was capable of making her own decisions.

Kenzi had proved to be highly responsible. She had made breakfast for Bo and Lauren almost every day since the doctor had started living with them, and she also keep detailed account of how much money they were pocketing and where it was going. Bo knew the girl has invested in some business with the money their private investigator agency had made, and that that money was what kept everything paid around the clubhouse.

So, her little human was capable of taking care of things… provided that they didn't have to do directly with her wellbeing. She was sure Kenzi liked to be taken care of, but sometimes she did things way beyond stupid just to ask for attention. Up until today, Bo was sure the 'accident' with her eight inches knife that had punctured her bestie's arm during a careless practice was just a yell of: 'Hey! Look at me!'. Kenzi had been not happy when she had carried her over her shoulder to Lauren, lecturing her all the way to the compound.

Bo's thoughts were interrupted when her phone started ringing, making her blonde doctor jump. Shaking her head she looked into the screen.

"Trick!" She answered quickly, hoping her grandfather had managed to have some answers.

"_Bo. I found a couple of things that can help us."_ Trick sounded exhausted but… happy?

"Thank God!" Bo jumped from bed and started looking for something to wear while speaking to her grandfather. "Tell me what they are."

"_I found an old recipe, an antidote of sorts, for many Fae poisons."_

"And that could help her?" She put her phone on speaker as she started to change.

"_I believe so, yes. The catch is that the effects could take almost three months to really kick in."_

"So…"

"_So she needs to take it for a couple of months, small doses, and then the pain-eater's poison is gone."_

"But, the poison can fester all the same if it is not eradicated from her completely." Lauren joined in the conversation. She was looking around for her shirt.

"She's right. What we need is something faster."

"_I couldn't find anything else. But there's this little charm that manages to make people sleep while protecting them of the monsters of the night-"_

He was cut off when Bo's excited squeal ran through the speaker. "Oh, please tell me you got it!"

Trick chuckled. _"I don't. But the Zamora Clan does."_

Bo stopped pulling her pants up, looking at Lauren, whose clothes were already half on. "Does that mean-"

"_Hale is on his way." _

The cheerfulness in the older Fae made Bo's heart leap. At least something was looking up.

XxXxX

Dyson rubbed his tired eyes with the heel of is hands. This was unbelievable.

Finding the information he was looking for had been really easy, especially when he was researching at almost two in the morning and the police bullpen was empty of a soul. Although it really had not been much what he had gathered, it was enough to at least know a little more about the girl they all know, or thought knowing.

"Aleksandra Ivannova Volkova." He said the name slowly, trying to digest it, trying to find how it was linked to Kenzi. There was nothing, at least in the name.

He scoffed and got to print everything that he had found, that was only an elementary school record, a certificate of Canadian citizenship and a lost report. Nothing more, nothing less. Sure there were some photos in there, and it didn't take a genius to realize who the little blonde was. What really surprised him though, was who the family of the girl was. Or, more likely, had been. The name of both the father and the brother were something that automatically had rang a bell in him.

He remembered the scandal that had happened with the young human that had been found dead not too far from Dark Fae territory. That had been a messy kill that nobody had bothered to cover, and, even though he hadn't been an official detective, he had been around enough to know that the kill had been a statement of some kind. They had killed the pet human of some Fae powerless enough to let it happen. The boy had been in his early twenties and with a promising music career that sadly ended with his body crushed under a gigantic construction beam. They had had to rule everything like an accident, delivering a tragic new to a devastated mother and father.

The shifter frowned. The man couldn't have been the real father, but he clearly remembered seeing a man with the mother in one of the TV interviews that had been around the case. There was just something overly dramatic about a young boy that had died just walking towards his boyfriend's house, and the media just had to have a field day with that.

So, maybe the mother had gotten a boyfriend or something, but that didn't change the fact that the real father was someone he had not heard of for years. Ivan Sergeyevich Volkov was famous in the Fae world. The man had been a great illusionist and in a way seer that many Fae had gone visit at some point or another for help with spells and thefts. His illusions had helped many Fae steal relics and treasures, and the price the man asked was really low, 1 per cent of the goods recovered. That had resulted in the Dark Fae in Russia forcing him to serve them and, last he heard, the man was still there.

That sure made things in Kenzi's life interesting.

According to the dates he had gathered Aleksandra had arrived around a year old and had disappeared around eight. There were no medical records concerning the girl, but it was stated the girl had been born in Russia in 1996 in a rather debilitated state and smaller than it was healthy, yet she made it through.

The wolf snorted, he needed to share this information with Bo. Maybe it was not enough to help locate Kenzi, but at least they had something on the girl.

Just as he was gathering his jacket from the back of the chair he was sitting on his phone rang. Frowning and wondering who could be calling at this time in the night, and also silently praying it was not Bo trying to pressure him, he took the call from a number he didn't recognize.

"Thornwood."

"_Thank you for answering!" _A male, frantic voice said after a beat.

"Vex?" The shifter asked confused. "How did you get my number?"

"_That doesn't matter! I need you here. I found Kenzi."_

"What?"

"_Come to my house. And bring the succubus!"_

Dyson looked at the phone once the Mesmer had ended the call, frowning at the other man's desperation. Shaking his head he put his jacket on and headed to the clubhouse. He won't tell Bo Vex had found Kenzi until he could talk with the succubus face to face.

They didn't need a desperate and angry Fae storming through the city.

XxXxX

"_I'm telling you the true!" A slightly older, but equally small, Sasha yelled through the house._

"_You are lying. You are always lying." Her Mama's face was red and it was taking some huge effort to not slap the girl. What her daughter had told her couldn't be true. They were standing in the foyer, almost ready to go out to the ceremony that was to held place in less than an hour._

"_I don't lie!" The girl's eyes filled with tears. "You choose not to believe me, that's different!"_

_At last it had become too much. The pain and pressure the past couple of days had already caught up with her. Both her mother and she were dressed in all black, a silent testimony of where they had spent the morning. The first time she heard about it she knew her cousins were joking around. The second time she truly thought someone was going to wake her up soon and told her it was a bad dream._

_By the third time they repeated to her the event it was so real and at the same time so unreal she jumped back to the joking theory._

_But she knew better._

_Dima and Yura had been the ones to tell her. They were the one closest to the girl, and they were the only ones Sasha really listened to, even though nobody really knew that. They were also the ones that saw the accident happen. Well, maybe it really hadn't been an accident, but she'd be dammed if she'd accepted it hadn't been somebody else's fault._

_Mourning in a graveyard for the better part of the day and missing the person she'd always looked up to made her decide it was time to tell her Mama. Too bad the woman didn't believe her._

"_Shut up, you brat!" The male voice carried from above. Soon enough that man was standing next to her Mama and put a hand on her shoulder. That man snarled down at her and she felt herself shivering in fear. "Today is important; we don't have time for your nonsense!"_

_Gulping the eigth-years-old told herself it didn't matter anymore if her Mama believed her. That man was evil and she'd had ask Baba Yaga's help if her Babka hadn't told her the witch was worse than her most horrible nightmare. If nobody, be her aunts, cousins and Mama, believed her, then so be it. This ended today._

"_It's all your fault." She said to him in a deep voice, making her sound older, wiser. "It's all your fault my family is falling apart."_

_That man only laughed, and worse of all, her Mama laughed too. "If this is someone's fault, then it would be yours. You are the one always whining and crying. Wetting the bed and cowering like the parasite you are." He said, laughter in his voice._

_Her Mama smiled to her as if the girl was stupid. "Sasha…"_

_The little girl frowned. "Don't call me that! Only Babka and Nika are allowed to call me that!"_

_Her Mama frowned in return. _

"_Your 'Babka'," that man said the name sarcastically. "Is dead. She died years ago and she won't come back! And your brother is no longer around to string you along with those stupid fantasies." The couple was tired of the little girl saying the elderly woman was still around, watching over her._

"_She's still in here." The girl said with conviction. "She still talks to me. Her spirit hasn't left. And I'm sure Nika will come back too!"_

_The slap shocked everyone. Sasha put a petite hand over her Mama's imprint on her cheek. Her body started trembling. He was the one always hitting her; her Mama had never put a hand on her and, feeling her cheek go warm, she knew she had lost. Her Mama won't believe her, no matter if she was saying the truth. Her Mama never had believed her, why start now?_

_Looking with wide pale eyes at her Mama she simply nodded and turned around. Silently she left the house and made her way to the busy street were some of her relatives were patiently waiting. They, too, were dressed in black, and all looked at her with pity in their eyes. Without really seeing anyone she left the front yard and headed to where the nearby family parish was._

_That was the last time all of them saw her. She never made it to her brother's last mass, and that day the Volkov family cried for the loss of the two siblings that everybody loved the most._

XxXxX

Kenzi looked at Vex with wide eyes. She was still laid across the couch, too weak to really get up, yet too frantic to be unconscious. Her chest heaved with the knowing that no matter what she wanted to do she was powerless. She was at the mercy of a man that could kill her, rape her or simply let her live. She wanted to yell to the man, beg him to finally end her suffering, but that hadn't helped her for the last twenty minutes and she doubted that continue was going to really help her cause.

"_Stay calm and breath. Everything is going to be fine." _The long haired man said to her in a soothing voice.

"I don't wanna be calm!" She yelled in the room startling the Mesmer; that up until that point had been pacing waiting for Dyson and Bo to arrive.

"_Shut up, girl. He's gonna think of you crazy!" _The same man scolded her.

"I don't care!" She turned her eyes to the Fae in the room, and sure enough, Vex looked perplexed at the lithe girl.

The oldest of the three sat on the ground in front of her, partially obscuring the view of the rest of the room. _"Listen girl, I need you to breathe and stay calm. I'm sure we'll be over this soon."_

"But, Dima…"

"_But nothing, ok?" _The man smiled, making his chain bend a little. _"We love you, Alex, but we don't want you to be one of us yet."_

Kenzi smiled with tears in her eyes. "It's been ages since you last called me that."

The man in the ponytail laughed at her, gone was his anger at the young girl. _"You refused to answer to other name than Kenzi since you were ten." _He shrugged. _"Not our fault, baby."_

The girl, in return, frowned, yet the haunted look in her eyes didn't disappear. "I'm not baby." She murmured barely. That nickname hadn't sat well with her, and it brought back so many memories she wanted so desperately forget. She knew what they were doing, but she didn't fall in it. They were distracting her of what was really going on in the room and in her mind, and she really appreciated it, but she couldn't play along with them.

A part of her mind was aware on Vex and the looks he was giving her. The same looks she had received as a child when she swore her Babka was in the room with the family dinning. Looking back at it she could understand why nobody believed her, who in their right mind would have believe a six years old when she told them her recently deceased grandmother tucked her in the night?

Another part of her was also aware of the call the Mesmer had made, presumably to Bo, only to be sent to voicemail, and the second one to the wolf that she was sure was sure was on his way with possibly Bo and Lauren.

"_Yes you are, baby." _The third man, the youngest one, told her in a babying voice, just like he did all those years ago just to rile her up.

"Dima!" she whined truly hurt and confused. "Tell them to stop!"

Dima, the oldest man, the one with the chain, simply laughed again, not catching the state the small girl was on. The other two joined, it was forced for the three, and the girl knew it was for her sake, yet it only made her chest hurt more. _"You know them, baby. They'll always tease you."_

Kenzi crossed her arms as best as she could trying to gather her feelings. Her body really hurt. Not only her neck that was used to be sore when she was a kid hurt like bitch, but also all torso, a pain that was similar to the one she felt that one time when she accidentally broke a rib trying to steal a fluffy coat when she was fourteen. Her knees hurt and felt stiff, just like the times when she had scraped them.

Her center also hurt, way beyond reason, and she was afraid to really imagine what had happened while she was unconscious. If they way Vex reacted when she woke up was any indication she doubted the Mesmer was the responsible for her pain. Yet, she couldn't be sure.

"Yura…" Her voice was somber and the laughing stopped at once. The long haired man looked at her expectantly "… did somebody rape me?" She knew he was the one to ask because he had always been the most direct with her, telling her the things she didn't want to hear, the things she needed to know.

The three men exchanged looks and that worried Kenzi. _"We are not sure." _Yura said sadly.

Vex, from his part just looked at the girl with wide eyes. He was sure he didn't get that far with the girl, but either way the question tore another piece of his heart. How could a girl, a little girl could ask something like that with a straight face and without flinching.

But who she was talking with?

Before he could ask, though, a frantic succubus came crashing into the room. Literally. Vex's mouth hang open as he looked to where his beloved wooden door used to be, in its place now was an angry Bo, eyes bright blue. Just behind her he could see a wide eyed Lauren, whose eyes where in his still loose pants. Dyson was nowhere to be seen, but he knew the wolf was somewhere nearby.

"What the hell is going on?!" If Vex believed he knew what to be angry meant, this definitely had changes his scale drastically. Bo's voice shook in the space once she too looked at his pants' state. She started marching towards him when a small whimper was heard.

The first noise that made her panic was the crashing of the front door. Kenzi couldn't help but jump in place when the loud boom resonated in the space. Her heart started beating faster than she could remember, and it only got faster once the echoing voice of the succubus reached her ears. Closing her eyes and covering her ears as much as she could, she tried to make herself smaller in a ball trying to go unnoticed and ignored the pain that action caused her. Yet she couldn't really help the whimper that escaped her when angry steps started getting closer to where she was.

Bo stopped in her tracks. She slowly looked at where the noise had come from. The sight that met her would haunt her forever.

The girl before Bo was not someone she could recognize… and she knew it was all her fault.

She looked at Vex, the man looked worse for wear. He voice was low and calmed, yet her eyes didn't turn to their original color. "What did you do?" As she spoke Lauren quietly made her way to Kenzi.

"Nothing I swear!" His pants were unbuttoned, sure, but she could also see that it was only a button that was unmade. "It just happened!" The Fae was practically shrieking. "Then I realized what I was doing and stopped!" He looked at the succubus dead in the eyes. "I swear I didn't hurt her."

The anger within herself vanished.

Bo knew the look in his eyes. It was the same look she had sported the night she had attacked Kenzi. The remorse and pain in the Mesmer's eyes was not alien to her, but it was strange to see it in the Dark Fae. But knowing what really happened to her little sister didn't make their attacks any less real. Even though Vex didn't mean to hurt the young girl she could easily say Kenzi was sporting knew bruises.

"I believe you, Vex," she said honestly, her own eyes shone with the same remorse Vex felt. "I know you wouldn't hurt her. But I need to know what you did to her."

The Mesmer looked at the succubus and understood. Bo hadn't had wanted to hurt Kenzi in any shape or form, but some nights ago she ended doing it… and it was because of the same reasons he had hurt her.

So, he spoke of what he remembered happened after he had found the girl.

XxXxX

As soon as she knew no one was paying her any attention her instincts kicked in. Lauren rushed to Kenzi's side and really looked at the girl for the first time in a couple of weeks. Work and both females' erratic schedules made it difficult to see each other, but the picture she was seeing was none she wanted to see again.

There, in the couch was the little human she had started to know as her lover's little sister. It was the same black hair, the same pale skin, those same long legs. Yet, there was something really different. The girl was skinny, skinnier than what was healthy. The doctor knew the girl was thin… but certainly the tiny tank top and shorts that barely reached the mid of the girl's thighs made things look differently. Not only knees and elbows looked sharp, but Lauren could easily see the ribs poking out her chest. The girl was so into a ball that her shoulder blades looked like real, feather-less wings, stretching the tender skin of the back and ready to burst it at any second.

Even though Kenzi was really folded into herself, her face was visible to all the others in the room. Gone was the mascara and the tiny bit of blush that Lauren knew she used, yet never really showed. Her lips were pale, almost as pale as her skin, skin that has also gone two of three shades whiter. The lack of makeup made the girl look younger. The protective position she was in, made her look smaller.

"Oh, Kenzi…" Lauren whispered. "You are going to be safe, I promise."

Lauren didn't need to see behind her when she felt Dyson entering the house. Both she and Bo had leave the wolf in the small traffic jam that formed not too far from the Mesmer house, forcing the shifter to wait until the cars moved to arrive at Vex's.

The blond male gently reached to the girl and placed a hand in her shoulder. The girl's first response didn't surprise them, nor really startled them.

Kenzi felt something cool rest in her heated skin and jumped away, scooting herself as farther into the couch as she could go. She could hear some talking in the background, but she couldn't understand what it had been said. The cool returned, this time rounding her neck and she had to choke back a sob.

"Baby, look at me."

XxXxX

"_Baby, look at me." The voice was soft and warm, but the feel of her hand at the base of her head was cold and rough. "Look at me. You need to do this."_

_Sasha looked into the green eyes of her 'Mum', or so the older girl called herself. Around the two several other girls were gathered, all of them with somber expressions, just waiting to see if the new girl could do the job._

_New girls never could, at first._

_Sasha kept looking into those brown, lifeless eyes, wondering exactly why she ended up with this gang, and why she hadn't already run away. It had been a couple of months since she left her Mama and that man and after the first week she knew there was no way she could stay in the city._

_The posters with her face in almost all the schools and playgrounds let her know the police was in high alert and was looking everywhere for her. Her Babka asked her every day to go back, not home, but to the house of one of her Aunts, where she could be looked after and protected from that evil man. But her Babka couldn't understand her Aunts were as blind as her Mama, they looked at her like the petite girl she was and labeled her as an imaginative child that saw things where there were none. If she had gone back then she would have ended in her Mama's care again and __**that**__ man would punish her again._

_Nika, on the other hand, begged her to look for his boyfriend and ask him to take her in. And she did. She looked in the address her brother gave her, but there was no one in there. The apartment was empty and tidy, just as if nobody had ever lived in there. The second address she had been given was the same. The old warehouse was also void of life. So little Sasha was forced to do the next best thing. _

_She had gathered the small amount of money she had hidden in her Babka's grave and left the city she grew up to never look back. _

_She ended up hiding in a moving van that left Toronto that same morning. The men in there had caught her some hours after they left, and, as Sasha ran from the angry yells and promises of beatings carrying a couple of outfits she had managed to smuggle out of the boxes in the van, she couldn't help but smile. She was far away from that man, and that was the only thing that mattered._

_The gang had founded her sleeping in one of their hideouts, and after a small beating, they had decided she could be of some use. Their leader, Lila, a brown-eyed tall blonde, told them to stop as soon as she had found out who was getting beaten. Sasha was petite and had beautiful eyes, or so Lila had said, perfect for some of their clients._

_Now she was here, trying to think a way out of this and thinking how she didn't see this coming. Ever since she was taken into the group, Lila and the others had teach her how to steal without no one noticing her, and how to know with one look if something was worth stealing or not. They had also taught her how to seem older or younger, dressing her according to what they had planned for her, and using the right amount of makeup to disguise her true age, something that had bothered her, but the promise of a spanking if she didn't do as they told her had muted her concerns._

_Sasha was small and didn't really could look past thirteen, but that was enough for Lila, who had plans for the girl._

_So, that why Sasha was now dressed up in her latest theft, a red dress that hugged nicely enough to make up from her lack of breasts and hips and that made her long legs look less bonnier. Also, the make up in her face accented her pale eyes and made her lips fuller, more easy to kiss. She looked thirteen alright, and her beauty had the rest of the girls a little jealous._

"_There's my little baby." Lila said to her once their eyes made contact. "You don't need to feel nervous. Walter is gentle with all of us. And he pays really well." She smiled. "He is the best fist you could ever dream of."_

_Sasha looked at the older girl with fear in her eyes. She wasn't dumb, she knew what they wanted from her, and it scared her. __**That**__ man was always rough with her and hurt her… how could she expect this Walter to be different? Besides, her running away was to avoid this kind of things, not to do them with other men._

"_I don't want to…" Her voice was small and scared. "Please, Mum, I don't want to…"_

_Lila's eyes hardened. "It's part of the job, girl."_

"_But it hurts…" Sasha mumbled. "It always hurts…" She looked at the older girl's eyes with tears in her own. "Please, Mum… please…"_

_The older girl lifted an eyebrow. Shaking her head she got up from where she was kneeling in front of Sasha and grabbed the younger hand in hers. She started pulling her with ease, reaching to spank the girl when little Sasha started to pull away with all her might. She walked to where an old man was waiting patiently for the girls near a well-kept sedan and without a word and a last sharp slap at her behind, Sasha was forced inside the vehicle._

_Sasha started panicking and yelling. The car smelled nice, but the air was warm and heavy. The doors were locked and the windows were up, she could escape. "Let me out!"_

_Outside, Lila was talking to the man in a calm tone. "She's not virgin, so no need to be gentle." The man smiled at this. "But, she is small, try not to tear something, please."_

"_I won't." His teeth were yellow and some were covered in gold. "What's her name?"_

_Lila paused at that. For her she was just her Baby, the youngest girl she had at her disposal, and the one that was easiest to punish. Looking around, her eyes landed in the small plaque where the street name was displayed: "Mackenzie Ave."_

XxXxX

_Leaving my home just like there is a known  
Facing your fears so you will understand  
Now I fly like an angel without wings to escape despair  
And I hope for a better world, maybe another time  
Yet I try just to fly like an angel without wings  
Hoping for some peace of mind, and you to understand_

_**Angel Without Wings (Dawn of Destiny, 2008) **_


	7. Bless the Child

**AN: I really wanted to have this story with as little Author Notes possible, but I really want to know what do you think about the story and if you are liking it or not. So please, be kind to share some words if you have them, because I kinda feel insecure about this story. I know I like it, and very much, but I'd like to know if I'm over doing it.**

**Thanks to read this far, and also thank you for all that had leave a review or started following and liking the story. This is Chapter 7 and we only have two more to go.**

**Enjoy!**

"Kenzi." The voice was forceful and the scared, obedient, little girl that she had fought so hard to bury all those years ago finally came back to the light. Dreading what she could encounter she opened her eyes and looked right in front of her.

Brown and concerned eyes looked at her. A small lock of blonde hair fell in front of them and made Kenzi sob. "I'm sorry!" Her voice was small and scared. "I know I had, but I couldn't!" She started shaking. "I'm sorry Mum, I'm sorry!"

Lauren blinked at that. The girl was panicking for something she knew nothing about, but at least she was talking to her. She exchanged a brief look with Dyson, who silently let go of the human he was trying to hold. "Kenzi, baby, could you sit up please?" The doctor in her needed to know what had happened to the girl and how bad her injuries where, and the small ball the younger human was in couldn't help her to determinate that.

Pale eyes looked at her in fear, but the girl obeyed without speaking. With weary eyes at the shifter she tried her best to move, and only flinched once when Dyson had tried to help her. Lauren could see the pain in her face at the movement, but not a complaint came from her mouth. "Good girl." Her comment made Kenzi whimper and a few tears escaped her eyes.

"I'm sorry, Mum." Kenzi's voice broke. "I didn't mean to run… I'm sorry."

Lauren smiled sadly at the girl; the faraway look in the young girl telling her Kenzi was in another place. She had seen this before, but it pained her that the little human was suffering this much. She knew of people whose traumas clashed with their realities, especially in her time in Afghanistan, but she couldn't guess what was so hard for Kenzi to act this way. "Kenzi." She spoke softly, gently, trying to remember her training with dealing with people in shock. "What are you sorry for?"

Kenzi lowered her head once she was seated in the couch and had looked briefly at Dyson, who was now standing behind the doctor. Her hands now rested gently on her lap and her hair fell in such a way that hid her blushing face. "I'm sorry I couldn't please him. I'm sorry I ran away."

Lauren closed her eyes pained at the broken admission. That was not something she wanted to imagine. The way the girl had looked at Dyson only making her stomach turn. "It is okay, baby girl." She frowned when Kenzi flinched at the name. "Who am I?"

Timid, afraid eyes peeked at her. "Mum Lila."

"Am I your mother?"

Kenzi shook her head. "You're Mum Lila."

Lauren nodded, even though she didn't understand what she said. Of all the patients she had treated with this kind of trauma, Kenzi surely was the easiest to talk to… and that bothered her. The girl was honest like a little child… unless… "Kenzi, how old are you?"

The girl frowned, confused. "Ten." Dyson growled at that, only making Kenzi jump.

Lauren inhaled sharply… definitely not what she expected. But something in the way the girl sounded confused made her realize the girl she knew was ready to come back. "Kenzi…" The girl looked at her from behind her eyelashes. "Look into my eyes." She waited until she did as was told. "I'm Lauren." She smiled at the younger girl's frown. "Remember me. Come home."

Kenzi blinked. The eyes were brown and deep, just as Mum Lila's, but there was certain warmth she never saw in her Madam. The hair was also blonde… but this hair was fairer… and shorter. This was not Mum Lila, but the woman in front of her wasn't someone she didn't know. She blinked again. "Lauren?"

"That's me." The older female smiled as recognition dawned in her patient's face. "Welcome back."

"Wha- what happened?" Everything ached. Every inch of her body was screaming in pain. "Where are we?"

"At Vex's."

"Vex?" In that instant everything that had happened to her in the last days came back to her in a flash, yet the pain and anxiety she had been feeling up until that moment had vanished. "Oh, God!" She looked past Lauren to where Bo and Vex where still talking. Even though she wasn't feeling fear, she knew she needed to leave soon. "I have to go." She tried to stand, but her legs only made her collapse in the doctor's arms. "Please, let me go!"

Bo looked at her lover and little sister as soon as the girl had started to stand up. She rushed to the two most important females in her life the moment Kenzi fell. "Take it easy, Kenz." She tried to touch the youngest human, but Kenzi flinched away from her.

"Please," her voice was small and trembled. "Please, let me go. I won't bother you again, just let me go." Confused tears threaten to fall at any moment.

Lauren smiled sadly and hugged the teen to her. "You are going nowhere, sweetie."

XxXxX

"_You are going nowhere, sweetie." The man in front of her told her with a smile in his dirty face._

_Finally, after a couple of years she had managed to escape and, God, how it had cost her. What she had believed to be an opportunity to learn and live in the streets within a group of females that knew everything she didn't had turned in a painful memory. _

_The last man she was forced to serve had been an ass, but fortunately, he had been so drunk that he passed out almost as soon as things got started, leaving the girl time to escape before Mum Lila picked her up. She had managed to run for several minutes before the pain in her abdomen became too much. Around that time she was certain the other girls would start looking for her. She needed out, and fast._

_The years that she had spent in the Lower Town of Ottawa had showed her where she could catch a free ride out that place, so, with determination in her steps, she made it to the River in no time._

_The boats along the old deck were of different sizes, and choosing the better looking one, she climbed on it and hid. Dawn was fast approaching and she was sure when night came she was going to be far from this city. Or so that was the last thing she thought before succumbing to a restless sleep._

_A gentle tap in her shoulder woke her. She jumped at the contact, knowing perfectly well what happened if she fell asleep before Mum Lila said she could. "Sorry!" She yelped before even looking at who woke her._

"_What are you doing here?" The voice was deep and scratchy. She looked up and saw an old man looking right back at her. His skin was a light chocolate and was covered in different places with dirt and dust. He looked at her with an eyebrow high in his forehead. "Who are you?"_

_She started walking back. Every old man she had ever encountered had only wanted something from her, and she was tired of giving it. "Stop!" Her voice shook, but she was determinate to fight._

"_Easy, girl." The man said with an easy going smile. "I won't hurt you."_

"_That's not true!" She yelled. Everybody said those same words just before hitting her, or worse, entering her._

_The man's face changed at that. It didn't become scary as she though it would be, but pensive. The man looked at her head to feet and frowned. "How old are you, girl?" _

"_Fifteen." The lie rolled out her mouth easily. Sure, she had grown a couple of inches in the last two years, and even gained some pounds, but if wasn't properly clothed and her make up wasn't right, she looked even younger than her ten years. _

_The man looked at her unconvinced. Guess she had ruined her dress while she was sleeping. She had lose her high heels early in the night in order to run better, so maybe her height wasn't in her favor either. "How old are you?" He repeated his question, his voice hard._

_She flinched. That voice made her remember why she was there. Who she was trying to escape. Steeling herself she looked again at the man, this time directly at his black eyes. Behind him she could easily see Nika looking at her expectantly. She was going to be strong for both of them. "I said I am fifteen." _

_The man smiled at her. He shook his head amused. That girl was something else. The fire behind her eyes told him he didn't want to know where the girl was from and why she was so adamant to be older than she was. Oh, well, he has seen his fair share of dramas. He didn't need another more. _

_Leaving the girl where he had found her in his boat he resumed his chores around the small space. He needed to be at Petawawa in a couple of hours to deliver the cargo in the boat. He had no time to chat with a little girl._

"_There is some coffee in the cabin. Feel free to take some." He said over his shoulder as he started picking some ropes._

_She simply blinked after him._

"_You are going nowhere, baby." The man in front of her told her with a smile in his dirty face. "I'll drop you off once we land and I leave these boxes. So you better get something insides that belly of yours."_

_She looked at Nika. The translucent boy shrugged. He was as confused as her. "Thanks…" She said unsure. _

"_Once you are done maybe you can help me gather this, aye?" She smiled at that._

"_Sure thing." She started to the small cabin, happy that something was looking up._

"_Girl…" The man said before she could go too far. "What's your name?"_

_The girl stopped and turned to look at the man. "I'm Al-" She frowned. No, that girl had been dead for some time now. "Call me Kenzi." She shrugged one shoulder. "They call me that."_

_The man didn't even bother to ask. "Then hurry, Kenzi, I'm already late."_

_She nodded. "Yes, Sir."_

_XxXxX_

Kenzi blinked. She was in a car. The car smelled fairy good and was rather warm. Strangely enough she felt calm, relaxed and like nothing could harm her. She couldn't remember how she ended in there, but she was comfortable.

All around her was dim, but she could see some shadows. Two tall figures where at the front of the car, just on the other side of a thick looking glass. The two were males, and if her rapidly returning focus was right, the one behind the wheel was Dyson and the other one was Vex.

She frowned. Not too long ago the thought of both of them would have made her panic. She remembered vividly what had happened in the Mesmer's house, but, strangely enough, she could tell the Fae couldn't harm her. Not now.

Right in her line of sight was Bo. The succubus kept looking outside the window. A scowl permanently fixed on her face. She looked as if she wanted to kill something, but she hadn't had the energy to do so. She knew Bo was danger, but, much like Vex, she could feel calm near her oh so called sister.

She shifted a little and found that was resting halfway against the door of what now she could identify as Dyson's car police. A thick blanket was over her, keeping her warm and comfy. But that was not exactly what was making her comfortable, no. She was curled in something really warm and her cheek was resting in something really fluffy that made her head rise and fall.

A couple of slender arms were wrapped protectively around her waist; one hand rubbed her lower back gently, and the other rested lightly on her tummy. She could feel she was seated in something that was definitely not a car seat. Peeking up her eyes widened and had no other choice than to blink stupidly.

Brown eyes bore into her warmly. A small smile graced the fair face that looked down to her; the blonde hair tickled her nose slightly. "Hey, there." Lauren whispered at her. The warm breath in Kenzi's face only made the thing more surreal.

The little thief tried to shift in the older woman's lap, but found that the position she was in didn't really leave much space to move. The arm around her waist tightened and she gasped softly, not because it hurt her already painful body, but because she could feel the calmness going through the action.

Kenzi looked again to Lauren's eyes. "What happened?"

"You blacked out." Bo answered softly from her space all the way on the other side of the back seat.

The youngest female frowned. For the last several days being unconscious only brought nightmares and pain to her body. The air between the front of the car and where they were seated started shifting and soon enough the young man with the Mohawk was there, his leg were fold beneath him and his face was fixed in a confused frown, easily mirroring the on the little thief's face.

"I don't understand." She told him, but for the rest of the car it was only an out loud comment.

"_Neither do I." _His voice was almost whispered, as if he feared the others to hear him.

Kenzi shook her head. She was confused and kind of dizzy. She didn't understand what he had said. "Speak up, Nika, I didn't hear you."

The man eye's widened when he looked at the females with the little human. Both set of brown eyes looked at Kenzi worriedly, while she kept looking directly at him. _"Not so loud!" _He chastised. _"They can hear you!"_

Kenzi blinked at that. After so many hours spent with the ghost she had forgotten that she was the only one able to see him. She sighed. She didn't care if they thought of her as crazy, but she knew that he wouldn't stop yelling at her if she wasn't careful.

Deciding she wasn't in the mood to be scolded by her brother, she nestled back into Lauren's bosom, one of her hands clutching the soft fabric of the female's shirt. It was strange, being comforted by the human doctor when their relationship was nothing more than familiar strangers. But, in a way, she was glad. She was sure she wouldn't stand being held by Vex, the recent memories of his attack too fresh to really consider being alone with him any time soon. Dyson hadn't done anything to her, but the mere thought of a man, any man, touching her disgusted her. So no, no wolf paws on her, thank you very much.

Bo was also out of the question. She had been hurt by her older sister and she didn't want any comfort from her. She wasn't nursing a childish grudge towards the succubus, no; she simply wasn't ready to open up to her soon. She knew she would end forgiving her, just like Vex. She loved both Fae, and she was messed up enough to know that no matter what they could do to her, she would end forgiving them… just not right now.

Her frown deepened. The presence of those three would make her flee in any other scenario, especially after reviving her memories for the last days that only made her even more jumpy. Right now she felt slightly on edge, yes, but not really threatened. She tightened her grasp on Lauren's shirt. There was something really strange. Her calmness, her current confusion and the lack of fatigue that had been following her for the last weeks screamed Fae to her.

She craned her neck to gaze up to Lauren, who was looking back at her with a raised eyebrow and an amused, yet confused smile. Apparently Kenzi wasn't the only one that didn't understand the whole ordeal. The doctor's smile widened, unconsciously relaxing the thief in her lap and making Kenzi cuddle even more into her.

"Go to sleep." The doctor encouraged her.

Kenzi scoffed and shook her head. She didn't want to be helpless if anything happened. She was rested enough to be alert for some hours, besides, she wanted answers.

"Where are we going?" She asked instead.

"The Dal." Bo again answered her. The succubus looked at her, itching to touch her, but she didn't dare. She couldn't afford to hurt her little sister again. Tears gathered in her eyes and she couldn't stop their fall when Kenzi's eyes connected with hers timidly. "I'm sorry, Kenz." She sniffled softly. "I love you so much, baby, and I'm so sorry."

The thief nodded. "I know." She didn't say anything more, she couldn't. In her heart she knew the succubus was devastated of what she had done, but that didn't make things right. She also knew she still loved her big sister, but she was still hurt and she needed time to heal. "I'm scared." She confessed. Of the succubus hurting her again. Of being locked in a small space by someone that was supposed to care for her. Of Vex being on top of her and force himself into her. Of Dyson shifting and attacking her. She was scared of everything, but strangely enough, that fear didn't make her panic. It was almost as if all her emotions where muted.

She turned to the translucent man, still floating in the small space. "Why I'm not feeling anything?" She voiced her question, not noticing the how the other two females looked at each other concerned.

Nika frowned a little, but pointed at the girl. _"They collared you."_

"Wha-" She reached with her free hand to her neck. There, resting smugly against her skin was a silky band of cloth. The band was tick enough to cover most of her neck, but flexible enough to not been felt. In the center of it a small piece of wood was rough in her fingers, and she could feel something engraved in it.

A soft hand covered hers when she pulled lightly at it. She looked up at Lauren's stern gaze. "Don't." The command was gentle, yet firm.

Letting go of the piece of wood she pouted at the doctor, silently asking for forgiveness, yet not knowing why. "Sorry," She whispered.

Lauren frowned at the girl. Kenzi was acting so out of character that she was starting to get worried. The fire behind the girl's eyes that had always marveled the doctor was lost, and she could see some insecurity and helplessness had replaced it. "It's ok." She smiled, trying to ease the little girl in her lap. "Really, try to sleep. You need it."

Kenzi shook her head. "I don' wanna."

"Then just close your eyes." Seeing the slight fear and confusion on the girl she brought a hand to softly brush the girl's eyebrows. "I won't let them hurt you. Promise."

Kenzi sighed and closed her eyes. Why was she doing as Lauren asked? She didn't understand.

XxXxX

Bo looked at the two women, trying to understand what was happening. Trick has told them the collar was made to keep a person's fears at bay while they were wearing them, but that it had only been tried on Fae, never on humans.

In a way she was glad Kenzi had responded so well to it, but that didn't mean their problems were solved, no. The thief couldn't wear the collar for the rest of her life, but Trick, and now Hale, were making the antidote that supposedly would make things better.

Hale had been a blessing. He didn't even hesitate when Trick had explained the situation to him, rushing to help as soon as the name Kenzi had been spoken. The collar had been a gift his grandmother had given his sister when she had been little. Val had wasted no time in giving it to the siren… it was an act that showed the succubus the Santiago children really cared for them, but that they had been forced to act otherwise.

This had left her thinking. Not only Hale was chancing his father's wrath helping Kenzi, but Trick had been also prompt to help them once he was explained everything. Vex had tried to look after Kenzi the best he could before been trapped in the Phobo's Dream spell… and even Dyson and Lauren were acting civilized toward one another.

The little human in her girlfriend's lap had not been the cause of their split, no. Things out of their control had happened to make them all drift apart, and the poison the Norn had split all over Kenzi had only made things worse. She felt awful.

Not only she had hurt the girl she had sworn to care, but she had also been blind to the pain the girl had been suffering since her encounter with the Norn. According to Trick, the poison was one of the most hurtful out there, and it effects were slow, driving the person to madness via their fears, if the physical pain didn't kill them first.

Maybe they had been too late, though, to save the girl's sanity.

The girl kept looking at the empty space between the seats and talked to the air as if someone was there listening. She was worried. The Mesmer had told her Kenzi had spent some minutes talking to the air and asking some disturbing questions. So, maybe a little insanity had already been formed in her little sister.

She looked at the most important females in her life and smiled sadly. Kenzi was totally curled in Lauren's lap, fast asleep. Even when the younger female had wanted to stay alert, the last days had taken its toll on the girl, leaving her exhausted.

"I'm worried." Lauren's voice was soft and gentle. Her hand kept stroking Kenzi's brows to keep her calm.

"Why?" Bo whispered back. She knew the two males in the front couldn't hear them, but she didn't want to risk waking Kenzi.

"I feel like I have a little girl in my lap, confused and lost."

Bo smiled. "She sure looks younger without the make-up… and without her normal clothes."

Lauren frowned. "How old is she?"

"Twenty three"

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, why?"

"She looks younger than that."

Bo frowned… her little sister was that age, right? Well, at least that's what her license said, anyway.

Before either woman could really continue talking, the car came to a stop.

XxXxX

_She looked at the river in front of her. The last year had been hard but she felt happier than ever. Tom, the old man that had helped escape Ottawa, had let her stay with him for a couple of weeks while he took cargo from once place to another along the River. He had been nice and warm. He hadn't asked who she was or what she was running for. He had simply helped her forget her nightmares._

_He had been the first grown man besides Nika that had treated her nicely and that hadn't tried to take advantage of her. It was rather refreshing. In the time she had spent with him she had been able to let loose and be a child again. It had been simply magic._

_Too bad he couldn't stay for long. After delivering the last cargo in North Bay Tom had told her that he needed to head back to Ottawa and his family. She couldn't go back. She just couldn't. So, with great pain in her heart she had say goodbye to a great friend and stayed in the small city._

_The new place had been rather comfortable to her. The shelter she had managed to enter was warm and comfy, and the clothes and make-up she had smuggled out of some shops made her look old enough to be let alone by Social Services._

_Sasha, no, Kenzi, had had a decent, if a little rough, life. But it was time to move again… after all, the police here knew of her and was trying to catch her, Kenzi McAdams… so yeah, it was time to move north._

XxXxX

She opened her eyes and winced at the light. Even when it was not that bright her eyes hurt enough to made her regret opening them.

"Welcome back." The voice didn't startle her, strangely enough. She half opened an eye and looked at where Lauren's voice had come from. The older human sat at the end of the sofa she was laying on, gently holding her feet in her lap.

"Hi." Kenzi's voice was small and scratchy, she blinked gingerly to get rid of her eyes ache.

Once she was comfortable enough she looked down at herself. She was still in a tank top and a pair of shorts, but not much amount of skin was seen. All over her body bandages and gauzes where tapped firmly, the smell of ointment reached her nose and made her sneeze a couple of times.

"Hi, baby," Lauren got up and hovered over the girl. She patted her dark mane and gingerly helped her to sit. "I need you to take this." She offered her a small cup that had been resting in the table besides the couch.

"What's this?" She took it and smelled it. It was sweet and thick.

"Something to help you with your nightmares." Kenzi frowned at that, but she drank it anyway. She had nothing to lose. The taste wasn't sugary as she had expected, but bitter and hot. She coughed after gulping it down.

"Sorry about that." Lauren gave her a sympathetic smile. "I try to make it more tasteful, but there's just so much you can do with rhino blood, abath horn and turnip salve."

Kenzi paled at that. "What?"

"I'm afraid you'll have to take it daily for a while."

Kenzi turned green. "Why?!"

"Come on. Everybody wants to talk to you. We'll explain in a little while." Reaching to hold a pale hand, the doctor had no problem getting the thief on her feet. She started for the door.

"Wait." Kenzi said and pulled back slightly, stopping Lauren in mid step. "Who's everybody?"

Lauren smiled at her. "Trick, Vex, Dyson, Hale, Val and Bo." She tugged lightly at the hand in hers. "We are all glad we found you. But we do have some question."

The younger girl looked past Lauren, where Nika was standing just before the door. The man nodded his head, silently encouraging her to do as told. "Fine," she said. "But, please, don't leave me." She wasn't really sure who she was talking with, but it made her feel better when both smiled and told her gently they weren't planning on it.

XxXxX

Bo looked at the papers in front of her. She couldn't believe Kenzi had lied to them so easily. The girl she thought was hiding something important from her hadn't disappointed. Kenzi not only had invented her name, but she had also invented her life and changed her age.

Surprisingly enough, it didn't make her angry, just sad.

"Aleksandra Ivannova Volkova." She read the name for the tenth time that night from the missing report. "Dirty blonde hair, medium length. Three feet and nine inches. Sixty five pounds. Petite and skinny. Two small beauty marks just above her upper lip. Speaks fluently English, Russian, and bit of French. Last time seen wearing a black dress and leaving her parent's house a day after her brother's death." The succubus shook her head. "Responds to the names of Sasha, Alex, Alexia and Lexi. Eight years old."

"Darling," The Mesmer said. "We'd already memorized that." He was tired of hearing those words again and again.

Bo rolled her eyes at the Fae. They were all around a table in the Dal, waiting patiently for Kenzi to wake up. Lauren had become a true mother bear when Dyson had reached for the girl once the car had arrived at the way station. Not only had Kenzi whimpered when he had tried to take her away from Lauren, but she had also clutched tighter to the fabric in her hand, making Lauren shoo the wolf away with a murderous look and carry the girl to the lower levels of the Dal Riata without help.

Something similar had happened when Hale had tried to wake the girl up. Lauren had actually growled at the siren and demanded everybody to leave the petite girl alone until she woke by herself. Lauren was now, then, with Kenzi in Trick's office, waiting until her younger human's body was ready to face them.

"I know." She sighed. "It's just that I don't get it."

"What is to get?" Vex said nursing his beer. "The girl had an awful childhood and ran away, changing her name and leaving everything behind."

Everybody looked at the depressed Fae. They knew he was cursing himself because of what he had done, but there was something else in his voice that made it clear he knew more than he was letting on. Before any could really ask him about it, Lauren came into their view, followed closely behind by a shy little thief.

Nobody rose to meet her. It was decided the girl needed her space and that sudden moves would only made her jumpy and nervous. So, instead of going to her, they let the two women inch closer to their table. Now that they could see the younger girl, and knowing what the information Dyson had gathered, they could easily see the fragile teenager in her. Her make-up and clothes sure could make her look the twenty three years she swore she was, but without them she really looked younger than her seventeen years. It amazed Bo how Kenzi had convinced them she was six years older than she really was.

"Hey Kenz." Bo was the first to speak. She was glad Lauren had taken the job of looking after her sister, that ways she knew Kenzi was properly cared.

Kenzi nodded at them. In her head she knew Bo and Vex, even Dyson, were possible attackers, but she still couldn't feel the panic those thoughts should carry. "Hi."

"Sit down," Lauren said while sitting herself in one of the empty chairs that were around. It really didn't surprised her when Kenzi decided to sit right next to her.

"How are you feeling?" Hale's deep voice asked her, only to receive a glare from Val. "Sorry, stupid question."

Kenzi shook her head, while reaching for some of the papers in the table. "It's ok." Her voice was soft and slightly scared. "I don't really feel anything."

"That's because of the collar." Trick said as he placed a giant glass of apple juice in front of her. "It's designed to erase you fears and pains while you wear it."

Kenzi looked at the tiny man, her face a mask of confusion. She nodded her thanks for the juice, and scooted closer to Lauren. She read the papers in her hands. Her missing report, her birth certificate, her school records. She looked up to the Fae in the room. Everyone knew who she was and probably were mad about it. A slight burst of panic started to rise in her, but it was vanished immediately.

"I'm sorry." She said to them.

Vex scoffed, and Bo glared at him. "We are the ones sorry, Kenz." She reached to touch the girl's hand, only for the girl to pull back. Trying to mask the hurt in her eyes, the succubus continued. "We are the ones that hurt you. Not the other way around."

Kenzi frowned at that. "But I'm the one who lied and got everybody split. I'm the weak human all of you hate… it's all my fault."

The Mesmer looked at the girl. "We don't hate you, Sasha." He smiled sadly at the girl who looked at him confused. The way he had said the name was too strange. "If anything all this was my fault." He gestured to the entire room with his open arms. He gazed at the girl, tears in his eyes. "I left, I shouldn't have left you. Please, forgive me." His last words were broken as a fit of sobs wrecked his body.

The lithe thief stared at him for a long moment. "What do you mean?" The sight of the grown man bended over the table and practically wailing his hear out made her chest ache. An ache that was soon muted. There was something extremely familiar with the image she was seeing.

"I promised him we would take you with us!" He all but screamed. "I promised him I would care for you. That we would take you away from _them_!"

The revelation hit her like a ton of bricks. But, she couldn't really proses it. She needed her emotions for that, and she couldn't really feel a thing with that damned collar on. The man in front of her was not a stranger. He was someone she had seen at least twice before knowing Bo… before she escaped home. The way Vex was crying took her to her past. To a memory so distant she was amazed she could remember. A memory of when the Mesmer had cried over her brother's coffin.

She turned her eyes to the left, where Nika was leaning on a pillar, his eyes downcast and silent tears rolling down his cheeks. She wanted so bad to yell and be angry. She wanted to hit her brother until the boy revived, so she could kill him again, but she simply couldn't. "Why didn't you tell me?" The question was directed to the dead boy, but it was Vex who answered.

"I just realized!" He said in despair. "You are different now, I didn't recognize you!"

"What's going on?" Dyson asked for everyone. They could see this was something between those two, but they also knew this was something bigger than they could possibly imagine.

Kenzi frowned, ignoring the wolf and everybody else's concerned gazes. "I wasn't talking to you." She said to the Mesmer while her eyes kept looking at her brother. "Why didn't you tell me?" Vex looked up at that, his face still showing traces of despair, and lots of confusion.

"_This is hardly the time, Sasha." _Nika told her strained. _"They can easily hear you."_

Kenzi really wanted to be insulted at that. Not only had he lied to her, but also he was preventing her from getting answers. "I don't care." She said, knowing all the living eyes in the room where on her. "And you better not disappear."

Nika shook his head, and, without another word, did exactly as she didn't want him to and vanished.

"Coward." The girl muttered under her breath, and snuggled closer to Lauren, practically trapping her arm to her side. The doctor had no other choice than to embrace the girl to her side to be at least a little comfortable.

The rest of the table looked at each other. The girl was acting more and more out of character and they wondered if she had managed to lost a little of her sanity. According to the text Trick had managed to find, the Pain-Eater poison could easily make a person schizophrenic, and they dreaded to think sweet Kenzi living with that.

The Mesmer hiccupped a little. "Who are you talking with?" Bo looked ready to murder him.

Kenzi just frowned, resting her head in the doctor's shoulder. "Nika." Maybe another time the face the Mesmer did could had make her laugh, but not this time. "He's gone, though."

Val tilted her head in confusion, and spoke for the first time. "Who's Nika?"

The thief only closed her eyes. "My brother."

XxXxX

_One night I dreamt a white rose withering,  
a newborn drowning a lifetime loneliness.  
I dreamt all my future. Relived my past.  
A witnessed the beauty of the beast_

_Where have all the feelings gone?  
Why has all the laughter ceased?  
Why am I loved only when I'm gone?_

_**Bless the Child (Nightwish, 2002)**_


	8. Lullaby

The door closed silently. The party of three stood awkwardly in the living room, just next the couch. They looked at each other expectantly, well, the older couple looked at the young girl expectantly, while the youngest looked at the floor. The air was thick and the tension was almost palpable.

"I guess I'll head to bed." Kenzi muttered, and turned to climb the stairs.

"Kenz!" Bo said suddenly. The thief stopped mid step. "I'm really sorry."

The thief nodded. "I know." And with that she left for her room.

"Oh, God." Tears danced in Bo's eyes. "I can't believe this."

Lauren hugged her girlfriend tightly. "She's safe, Bo. She's home."

"But she is not the same."

"It's the collar. It confuses her."

"That's not it, and you know it." The succubus melted in her lover's arms. "I feel like I had broken something inside her and there's no way to glue it together."

They had spent the last hours at the Dal, explaining to the girl what had happened to her and why everybody was acting so badly towards her. They told what had been spilled over her at the Norn's and why it had hurt so much. They also told her why it was important for her not to take out the collar, because the antidote Trick had come out with was too strong to take it in one go and she'd need to take it daily for at least two months. They had also promised her they would do everything in their power to get her back to her feet, but the girl hadn't responded how they had wanted.

Vex had also explained what had happened between them. Nikolai, or how he called softly, Kolya, had been Kenzi's older brother, murdered at age nineteen by a stupid Dark Fae. The boy had been what they could call the Mesmer's boyfriend. To the world the boy had been just a pet, but they could see the love in Vex's eyes every minute he related his tale.

Once the story of their love had been told, the rest of the gang had been overly happy, trying to cheer her up, but everybody knew it was fake. Under any other circumstances the girl would had cry her eyes out in despair, hearing for the very first time about her brother's love with Vex, and the real reason why he died, but the only thing she could feel was confusion and a dull ache.

Kenzi had practically hid at Laurens's side, while the others spoke. She hadn't talked at all or even mentioned her side of the story. They asked her questions, but she had refused to answer them. It had been bad enough that they knew her real name, and who she really was, she didn't need for them to also know why she had escaped. Or how bad it had hurt to lose the only one that had always believed in her.

Vex knew. It was clear in his eyes, but he had been sensible enough not to say a thing. That was her secret to share, not his. And she was grateful for that.

Lauren had been really nice to her. She hadn't offered any words of comfort, like the rest of them, she simply had held her a little more tightly every time Kenzi had showed discomfort, and was there for when Kenzi silently asked. Not a word had been shared by them. It pained Bo lo look at the bond both humans were starting to share.

"I'll talk to her in the morning." The doctor said while gently pulling the succubus toward their bedroom. She was the most freaked out about Kenzi choosing her for comfort, but she did liked the younger human and she knew how hard it could be to revive ones pains, even if she couldn't relate to the girl's memories.

Lauren knew Kenzi was truly troubled. There could only been a handful of things that could move a little eight years old to flee home. The wounds the poison had made were the same the girl had had at some point in her life… and the sexual abuse was clear to her.

She had checked the girl while she was out at the Dal, and the little thief had not only showed a couple of bruised ribs, a sprained wrist and a dislocated shoulder, but also sever bruising and bleeding in her lower region. Fortunately Bo had been so mortified by the whole ordeal that she had been easily shooed of the room and didn't know the extent of the girl's wounds.

"I'm really glad she has you." Bo said softly while climbing into bed. Lauren looked at her quizzically. "I don't know how to be around her, so I'm glad she has you."

The blonde smiled and walked to the door of the room. Gently, almost ceremoniously, she put down the clothe covering the glass, reveling the hallway and bathroom on the other side.

That single action made Bo's heart crack. She couldn't remember exactly when she had put that clothe there, but she did know it had been around the time she had her fight with Trick. Looking back, she remembered the wounded look on her little sister's eyes the first time she saw it… yet the girl had smiled and complimented her choice of colors.

"I'm glad she didn't fight us." Lauren said while climbing into bed and curled to her girlfriend.

Both knew that was true. Kenzi wasn't prone to run when a problem arose, but they could easily see this was bigger than anything the lithe human had faced in a while, and, they both knew sometimes running was the best option.

XxXxX

Kenzi lay in bed staring at her ceiling. The beams were dusty and she could easily see one of them almost giving in. She wanted to find it amusing that that particular beam was just above her wardrobe. _Karma is a bitch, huh?_

She reached to the collar she was still wearing. According to Trick this was enchanted to keep nightmares away, but in her it only muted the feelings she should be feeling. Now that she was aware of it, she could feel the small piece of wood resting a couple of inches above her breasts, the silky clothe, which was fairly confortable, made her breaths shallow.

Trying to forget about it, she looked around. The room was exactly how she had left it. Clothes were scattered all over the place and she could see most of her shoes in a messy pile on the corner opposite her. Her big double-sized bed was unmade and her blanket was half on the floor. A couple of dirty dishes were in her vanity. The room was a real mess.

'_I'm tired of you. Your voice, your music, your video games, your clothes all around the house. You drink too much, you eat too much, hell, you are higher maintenance than anyone I've ever known. You are always too loud, too irresponsible, too messy. I'm done!'_

Bo's voice echoed in the room. The last true words her 'older sister' had said to her before leaving made her frown. She knew those words had hurt her deeply, and they still did, but the pain was not there and that was not only strange, but abnormal.

In any way, Bo was right. She had been so blind in the comfort her new family had provided that she had simply became careless. Little Sasha wouldn't have been caught leaving messes behind; the beatings she had receive from them had been too violent, too scary. She had learnt early in her Mama's marriage that if she wanted to sit she needed to be a perfect little angel… and do whatever they wanted her to.

Maybe it really had been her fault. If she should had been more careful with how she acted then nothing would had ever happen. If she had stopped to think before going at the Norn with a chainsaw, if she had abide to the Fae's rules, if she had treated the Zamora clan with more respect, if she had run away the very first time Bo found her…

She sighed. There was no way she could sleep. There was just too much in her mind. She got up and reached to the dirty dishes. Years of necessity made her as silent as a mouse while she descended the stairs to the kitchen and, with an ease not even Bo knew she had, cleaned all the plates piled in the sink. Looking around, she also started to clean the old boxes of pizza and cereal, barely blinking when a small mouse escaped from one of it.

Once she was done downstairs, after tidying up a little the living room, she returned to her personal castle. She scoffed, that what her brother had always called her room. Her room had been pink and girly… She had considered painted her room in the clubhouse like that, but it had threatened to bring back memories she hadn't been ready to face.

The little thief started to clean her mess. She was sore and stiff, something to do with the 'return' of her past injuries. What a stupid poison, festering inside her body and causing her wounds, instead of killing her slowly and painfully. Nothing could be easy with the Fae, that was for sure.

The clothes were easy to clean; most of them were in need of a good wash, so she simply put them in the hamper near the bathroom. Once in there she blinked at her sister's door. She could easily see her and Lauren fast asleep, the doctor holding the brunette tenderly. It took her a moment to realize that the clothe was gone, and that she was seeing the two females being in a more or less intimidate situation.

Shaking her head she returned to her room. The little clothes that remained were silently put in her wardrobe, as did her shoes. Just to test exactly how damaged the collar made her she closed the doors once she was done. Nothing happened. There was no fear, no panic, no pain. For a brief moment she wondered how her life would have been if she had had the collar before. The pain would had been less, and the fear nonexistent.

She made it again to her bed, but this time instead of just sprawling herself over it as was her habit, she started arranging the covers. Somehow she had managed to knot her sheet, and while she was fighting with it she felt something she had almost forget se had. She pulled the little thing from the knot, it was a small plush octopus.

She smiled at the sight of it. It was an exact replica of her beloved Octi, the purple, hatted, octopus that had been her only comfort when she was still living with her Mama and stepfather. The original Octi had been a gift from her real father, and it was the only thing that she had regretted not taking when she fled.

XxXxX

_It had almost been a month of her and Bo together. They had built a marvelous relationship in such a short period of time, and the bond they had grew day by day._

_Finally they had managed to reconstruct the clubhouse to a more or less okay place to live. The roof had been patched in several places, the weaker walls had been reinforced and the front door had been replaced. Most of the windows had been barred and they had managed to bring enough furniture to be comfortable. The place was really starting to look like a home._

_Both girls were currently wondering the streets, they were really looking for someplace to eat, the pizzeria they usually frequented was closed and neither of them had really got to an agreement as to what they wanted. It was strange for Kenzi, not eating what she wanted, trying to find a middle ground as to where to eat with Bo, but the feeling of just having someone to really talk to was amazing._

_They had just passed their second sushi place when she saw it. There, in the window of a small gift store was a little purple octopus that she had missed so much. It amazed her, really, it was the same shade, the same hat, the same nose… it was her Octi. _

"_Something wrong?" Kenzi looked up to see Bo a couple of steps ahead of her. She was so stunned that she had actually stopped walking, leaving the succubus talking to herself._

"_N-No." Her voice quivered a little. The damn plush toy was messing with her. "I- I just." She cleared her throat. "I need to see something. You keep looking for something to eat, I'll catch up with you." And without waiting for a response, she was entering the place._

_She looked around. The store was clearly a family business, an old woman readily welcoming her while bouncing a small boy in her lap. The store was spare, only some teddy bears and some gift bags that sat at a corner, some coloring books in a small bookcase and the window where her beloved Octi was. _

_She didn't really say hello to the woman, she simply walked to the plush toy. Picking it up she could see it was smaller than she remembered. The eyes were not scratched as her previous toy, and she could see the small label at the side of the hat. The toy was new, but she could easily see the spots and tears she had made in hers over the years._

_Chocking back a sob she blinked to clear the tears. The old woman so preoccupied with the boy to take any notice. She didn't even think it. With ease the small plush toy was in her jacket, she wandered inside the store for a little while, just to pretend nothing happened. Behind her the door opened, but she ignored it. Deciding the new customer was the best distraction she could encounter, she turned to leave, only to come face to face with Bo._

"_Kenz?" The new nickname was still strange to her. It had cost her years to even answer to Kenzi, but the Kenz the older girl said to her didn't make her feel strange, only welcomed._

"_Oh, hey!" She smiled, and hoped the anxiousness didn't show on her face. Bo had already told her not to steal a couple of days ago, when she had caught the younger girl stealing a blouse from a street vendor. It was a little hypocrite, or so the girl thought, the succubus using her powers to get them free meals and all._

_Yet, she felt ashamed at being caught. She didn't want to disappoint the older girl, she simply didn't._

"_What are you doing?" Bo's tone wasn't exactly forceful, but it was clear she already knew what she had done._

"_I thought I saw something I've been looking for a while." Not a truth, not a lie either._

"_Kenz…" This time her voice held a warning and the thief knew she was screwed._

_Slumping her shoulders she got the plush toy from her pocket and showed it to Bo. "I'm sorry." _

_Bo raised an eyebrow. "Stop stealing." Her voice was stern, and if it had been other person talking to her like that, Kenzi had been immediately offended. "We agreed to try and have a decent life. Didn't we?"_

_The younger girl only lowered her eyes. They did agree to try and stop taking advantage of the people around… something to do with a new life for both of them. "I'm sorry, Bo." Sighing softly she took the plush toy and put it in its place at the window. "I'll try not to do it again."_

_A warm had cupped her cheek, forcing her to look Bo in the eye. Those eyes were the first thing that had made her trust the succubus, they were an open window to her soul, a caring and gentle soul that made her try and forget her hard earned habits._

"_Hey, no need to be sad. Nobody noticed." And it was true, the old woman was nowhere in sight and the street in front the window was practically empty._

"_Still, I'm sorry."_

_Bo smiled and kissed her softly on the forehead. It was the first non-sexual kiss she had received since leaving home. "Come on, I saw a dinner in the corner." Bo held her hand and started pulling her to the door. It actually took her a moment to tell her feet to move, the toy still calling her. "Hey, what's wrong?" It was only a second, but clearly the succubus saw something she didn't want to show._

"_Nothing." She didn't even try to smile. "Really. Just some childhood memory." Why did she even say that? Her past was taboo and nobody, nobody alive that's it, knew about it._

"_Are you sure?" She didn't believe her._

"_Yeah, I am."_

XxXxX

Kenzi toyed with the collar as her memory took her. The next day that had happened she had come home from the Dal drunk, still trying to erase the event from her mind. And there, just in the middle of her bed had been sitting this small plush octopus. The shock she felt at seeing it had made her sober, and she looked for Bo for answers.

"_I love you Kenz." _It had been the only thing she had gotten from the succubus.

She felt the small spark of joy at the memory, but it was equally suppressed for the dammed collar around her neck. Frowning she came to a decision. Reaching back, she undid the knot with one hand, while still holding her Octi.

Nothing prepared her for the explosion that happened in her.

It started with full force. The pain, the anguish, the hurt, the happiness, the love. Everything came back within a second.

The pain Bo and Vex had caused in her. Not only had the succubus made her worst nightmare true, but because she also had been insensitive for the better part of two months. Vex had not only try to rape her, no, he had to be her brother's lover… and the cause of his dead.

The anguish she felt because Bo may not love her anymore. It was easy to see. The older girl had been tired of her for a while. The poison had only helped her show her emotions better. The anguish she felt because she had to revive her memories.

The hurt, deep inside her. Not only of the events that had happened for the last five days, but because of her past demons. She knew she carried scars, scars that had been so poorly healed that a simple action had ripped them open.

The happiness, because she felt that finally she could grief her brother's passing. Knowing what had really killed him allowed her to accept his death better. And happiness because Bo had looked for her… even if it was only to hurt her again.

She also felt the love. The love she held for her big sister, for Dyson, for Hale, for Trick, for Vex, for Lauren. Trick had felt like a real grandfather to her. Dyson and Hale were the very two best friends she could ever come across. Vex, Vex was Vex. He was a man that had opened up to her and that was not really a friend, but an older annoying brother. And Lauren. She had always liked Lauren, but she had been too jealous of the other human.

It was too much, and she could feel her tears rolling down her cheeks. They were hot against her chilled skin. She rubbed at her eyes, her fist trying to ease her pain while her other hand clutched Octi closer to her. Her heart hurt, but it was a good thing to feel.

Her sobs were loud on the room. Her chest heaved with each lungful of air she got. Her bare arms and legs grew goosebumps and a little hiccup made it difficult to really breathe.

She sniffed and climbed blindly on the bed. She had needed to feel this since she had been in the car to the Dal. She shivered. She needed to feel this pain. The pain was good. Pain was a friend.

And just like that. She curled into a small ball, Octi safely in her arms, and cried her heart out.

She felt asleep, still trying to breath.

XxXxX

Vex looked at the coffin. If it hadn't been for Kenzi she wouldn't have ever come back. The memories were so painful, so real to try and confront them.

He had been young, he had been stupid. He had been a teenager Mesmer in love, trying to convince his lover that the Fae wasn't so bad. Convince him that they weren't monsters and only killed when necessary or provoked. He needed Koyla to know that being a pet was only a formality, and that in his dark heart he was the only love he could ever felt.

He had been so naïve. Bragging his love to all the Dark Fae that were around to listen, saying that the male human was the best thing the Gods could ever send to Earth. He had only incited the others to play a game.

Kyola had been so clear at what he had wanted. He loved the Mesmer with all his heart. He could proudly carry the pet banner if the older man could have him by his side. The Fae was the world to him. He could spend his hours playing the guitar and drums for him. They could live the days away simply talking of shooting at their video games. He had been happy with him, all smiles and laughs. But, the Mesmer knew his life at home was more complicated.

The man that had married his mother was a sick bastard. He enjoyed playing mental games with Koyla whenever he was around. He made the boy uncomfortable, and, in a way he had made him leave his home from a very young age. Koyla had spent most of his time with Vex, only being home to sleep and sometimes eat dinner. Neither men knew what had happened to the little girl Koyla always had talked about.

One day Kyola had arrived home in tears. The younger boy had been inconsolable and it had taken the Mesmer hours to finally extract what had happened. The Russian boy had explained his little sister had been abused by that awful man he had to call Dad. The girl had been beaten badly and, according to the boy, just because she had accidentally knocked over a lamp. The man had thought he had been alone and had spanked the girl merciless until an angry Kyola had interrupted. He had been devastated when the old yellow bruises had been presented to him, along with the scratches all over the little girl's back. It had been simply sickening.

It was then when it was decided that they were going to move in together, in another county far from Toronto, and that little Sasha was going to leave with them. Both men had wondered exactly at what extend the men had hurt the girl, and for how long.

But then, Koyla had been killed. And everything changed to the worst.

The Mesmer had attended all the masses that had been ordered by the family. He had also accompanied them to the Crypt to where he had been put to rest. The same Crypt he was sitting in now.

He had never seen the little girl that was supposed to be his family. He had never thought of her.

He had forgotten her for years.

XxXxX

Her eyes opened with a start. The room was still and silent. In the darkness she could easily see the brunette at her side. Bo was finally sleeping, after days of endless search and worry she was finally resting. Her mouth was slightly open, a small river of drool running from the corner of her lip to the pillow beneath her.

She was breath taking.

The air was light. She was not too hot, or too cold. Her temperature was perfect, and the blanket covered exactly what they needed to cover. If she was that comfortable, then, why did she wake up?

She closed her eyes to get back to sleep, but they were opened instantly back. There was something that was bothering her, something in the back of her mind that told her to get up and do _something_. Bo shifted at her side. She snuggled closer to her pillow, pulling from Lauren slightly and giving the doctor enough space to maneuver out of the bed without disturbing the succubus.

Knowing her instincts were more often than not right, she got up from the bed and started to the first floor. If there was something out of place, it had to be downstairs, or so she thought. She was about to descend the stairs when a little moan got her attention.

She looked to her right. Kenzi's room was a place where she had never really been. The succubus and the girl had no sense of personal space; both entering in the other's room without been announced… or so that had been before the Norn had poisoned Kenzi. After all that, Bo had put the cloth on her door, promptly banning the girl from her space. It had been strange, and in a way out of character for the succubus, she should have known something was up.

There was a moan again. This time louder, sadder. Frowning the doctor got the youngest girl's door. A small skull with hearts met her at eye level. She remember it being a gag gift from Hale, the siren presenting the girl with a real looking skull thinking of it would likely terror the girl, only for Kenzi to adorn it with hearts and hang it just in front her door. It surely did freak out the doctor.

The door was firmly shut, just as it had been when both she and Bo had gone to bed, the girl's door actually being wood prevented the doctor from knowing what was happening inside. The noise, the moans were coming directly from the room. Sighing, and making herself believe this was not trespassing, the doctor turned the knob and entered the place.

The room was… different. The last time she had seen it had been when Bo had attacked Kenzi, and then it has been a mess, a smelly mess. Clothes had been scattered all over the place, dirty dishes were laying around; she had been sure she had saw a small mouse somewhere in there for an instant. The room she was in now was more or less clean. The floor was visible and the vanity was free of useless garbage, yet the floor clearly needed scrubbing and there was a foul smell in the air, making her nose tingle slightly.

Looking at the bed she could tell where the smell came from, and why her sixth sense had woken her up.

Kenzi was curled up in a little ball. Her chest heaved and her breath came shallow. The sheets she was in were soaked in urine and blood. She could easily see the new bruises and scratches all over her pale flesh. The girl was holding onto a small purple toy with all her might, and tears streamed down her cheeks.

For a moment she was frozen in shock. There was no reason why the girl was being attacked again in her dreams. She had taken her first dose of antidote; the one Trick said would put the poison to rest. And she was also wearing the collar, the one that would keep the dangers away.

The collar that was now just a couple of feet away from her. The white satin contrasted heavily with the dark wood of the floor, the small charm getting lost in it.

"Oh, baby… What have you done?" Kneeling briefly she picked up the collar and marched to the girl. She sighed at the girl's wounds; and wondered for the hundred time what kind of life could Kenzi had have to endure such a pain and hurt.

Reaching to the younger girl she climbed into the bed, mindful of not getting herself wet, and gently embraced her. When she was a kid, Lauren had always liked to be awaken from a bad dream by a gently hug and comforting words, her Mom used to hum to her when thing got scary. So, evening her breath out she started the song that had always calmed her.

XxXxX

_The police officer looked down at her. The woman was huge, easily three times her size. She was good looking, sure, but her frame was one of a weight lifter. The uniform was too tight in her and Sasha, no, Kenzi, gulped when her abs flexed._

"_What a little beauty you are." Her voice slurred and that made the girl nervous. She knew that kind of voice too well._

_It had been four years since she left home. She was now proudly a twelve years old urchin. Her two years with Mama Lila had taught her how to survive in the streets and how to steal to live. Her petite size and slender hands were her best weapons._

_To avoid situations like this one with the police or social services she had restored to wear high heels to appear a little taller and older. It worked great most of the time, especially if her makeup was right. She had starting stealing more expensive clothing, and, in a way, more mature. So, it had just being her luck when this lady officer had caught her only wearing a pair of old jeans, sneakers and a t-shirt. No makeup, no high heels, no wig._

_She wasn't stupid. She'd saw herself in a mirror. She was small for her age and the hunger had made its effects known, she was really petite, and hadn't really grown out of her baby face. She barely looked as a ten years old._

"_Um…" Sasha… no, Kenzi, wisely said. All her senses were screaming danger, but the woman blocking her escape route was too big for her to bypass._

"_Such a little thing like you shouldn't be here at this hour…" The cop said unsteady. "What are we going to do with you, uh?"_

"_I'm heading home, ma'am." Her voice returned to her, trying to come up with something to make the woman go away. She wasn't going to tell her the alley they were in was currently her home. "I just lost track of the time. It won't happen again." It was still fairly early in the night; surely the police officer could believe her, right?_

_The woman smiled at her. The panic in her rose. A strong arm surrounded her slender shoulders and she had to fight a shiver down. "Why don't you come with me? I have some candies at the station."_

"_No thanks. I really need to go home." She was not stupid. This wasn't the first female to ever treat her like this. Unfortunately, Mama Lila's clients didn't stop at men. She had had her fair share of 'woman love'._

"_Come on, I won't bite." The arm around her got tighter._

Shit. _It was the only thing that crossed her mind before she was forced into the back of the ally._

XxXxX

Kenzi opened her eyes in panic. It took her a minute to gather she wasn't in that dark alley, being forced to please a woman three times her size. She was in a bed, a comfortable bed. She could feel wetness around her, and her stomach fell at what that meant.

But she could also feel something warm at her back. And she could also hear a soft melody being hum into her hair. Shifting sixthly she was glad when the melody didn't stop and the sense of panic reduced. Into nothing. She was safe, wherever she was.

"Shh… baby," a voice said. "You're safe now." She knew that voice, and tears sprang to her eyes. She knew that voice. And before this ever started it had been a voice she didn't trust. Before it had been the voice of someone that didn't really bothered with her and didn't really care for her. Yet, now in the safety of Lauren's arms she could tell that had changed. Not only was the doctor comforting her, but also she could actually feel the love radiating from the woman behind her. "Shh, I got you."

"I'm sorry." Kenzi murmured. "I made a mess."

A soft chuckle answered her. "It's okay. It can be fixed." Lauren's hand brushed softly the hair out of her face, and neck, kissing her temple. "You are really safe here, Kenzi."

"I know."

The older woman held the girl for a couple minutes before shifting away from her, making the little thief whimper. "It's okay, baby, I'm not going anywhere." She got up from the bed and kneeled in front of her. "Come on, let's get you cleaned." Reaching for the girl she sat her up on the bed.

Kenzi took Lauren hand and followed into the bathroom. Letting go of her hand, Lauren started a warm bath and turned to her. "Arms up." Following her blindly, Kenzi did as she was told without protesting. Once she was naked in front of the older girl she felt amazed at her lack of panic or even shyness. Frowning at this she looked at Lauren for answers.

The doctor felt the stare at her back from where she was kneeling before the bathtub, checking the water. Turning the faucet off, she regarded the girl with a serious look. "Never take it off, Kenzi. At least not until I tell you so."

Kenzi's head tilted to the side confused, her mind still clouded at what she was feeling. Her brain suddenly clicked. Reaching to her neck she felt the silk of the collar and the small piece of wood resting above her breast. Wondering when Lauren had put it on again she smiled sheepishly.

Shaking her head Lauren allowed herself a smile at the cute girl in front of her. "Come here, you dummy. I even put in some bubbles."

Kenzi nodded and did as was told. Getting in the warm water she marveled at the doctor and the care she put into every action she did. From getting her undressed to washing her body gently, she could feel herself truly cared for. Sighing as Lauren massaged her scalp she couldn't help but whisper her happiness.

"What was that?" Lauren asked softly.

The younger girl looked at her and wondered why she really felt like she could open up to her. "Nika used to do this with me when I was a kid." _Way before that man started abusing me. _"I really like it." She smiled. "Thank you."

Lauren smiled back before frowning a little. There was something that had been bothering her for a while now. "Baby," she paused to lick her suddenly dry lips. "I want to ask you something. You don't need to answer, but I'd feel really happy if you do."

Kenzi tilted her head again, now truly confused. The movement stopped the massage, and she felt the loss almost immediately. Thinking that if she answered promptly the pampering could continue, she talked without hesitation. "Ask away."

"Today… when we were in the car, you talked to someone. Not me or Bo, someone else. The same happened at the Dal before Vex told us his story. And," pausing a little trying to gauge the girl reaction, she decided to continue. "Vex also told me you were talking to someone when you were in his house."

"Oh." Kenzi frowned yet again. That was not something she was expecting.

The massage renew as Lauren continue talking. "The pain-eater poison may cause hallucinations, and sometimes those can be permanent. I just want to make sure you are alright, baby."

The girl didn't say a thing and the doctor resigned herself at not getting an answer. She finished the girl's hair and gently rinsed all the soap from her body once she was done. Getting her up she wrapped her in a soft towel and, once her hair was dry enough, she walked them to the younger girl's bedroom.

"It was not the poison." Kenzi's voice was small, ready for judgment. Lauren was currently looking for her pajamas and paused at her words.

"What?"

"It was not the poison." She repeated and shivered slightly. She was getting a little cold. "I've always seen dead people. I was talking to Nika and my cousins."

Lauren looked at the girl hard and that made Kenzi nervous. Deciding she needed to do something she walked to her bed and pulled her pajamas from under her pillow. She was about to put them on when soft hands caught her own. "Talk to me, baby." Lauren's voice was soft and understanding.

Kenzi sighed and met brown, warm eyes. "Ever since I was able to remember I've seen dead people. I knew they were ghosts when I was six and my Babka died… she tucked me in the night we buried her." She scoffed a little. "I was freaked out, because up until then I thought everybody I saw was just there, you know? Like when you wake up there are windows and beds, they simply are, nobody question them. I sometimes saw this strange man in the corner of my Babka's garden, or this little girl that sat alone in the jungle gym at the park, and I thought they were just there, because, well, they were."

Lauren searched for the truth in the girls eyes. She found it. "Ok."

Kenzi blinked. "Ok?"

"Yeah. Ok."

Confusion and relieved danced in her eyes. "You believe me?"

Lauren smiled and pulled the towel off the girl's body, gently helping her into her underwear. "I do."

"Why?" The girl asked while her tank top was pulled over her head.

"Because I know you are telling me the true." She smiled at the girl. "And because I've seen enough to believe everything you say to me."

Kenzi smiled in return and waited patiently as Lauren stripped the bed of the wet sheets. The doctor paused when she reached the mattress and found a plastic cover over it. Looking back at the girl she simply raised an eyebrow waiting for an explanation. Kenzi started to feel ashamed at that, but as everything else, the feeling was squashed almost immediately. "I have nightmares sometimes…" She shrugged. "I didn't want to ruin it."

Lauren smiled sad at that. Had she had known, she could have given the girl some medication for that. "Clever girl. Do you have any sheets?"

"Yeah." Reaching for her still closed dresser she pulled out two sets of sheets. "Which one?" One was light pink and the other a baby blue.

"Whichever you want, baby."

Shaking her head at the well-used nickname, her mind wondered when the pet name she had always hated was so sweet coming from the doctor's mouth. Maybe it had to do with the good intentions she knew Lauren had with her. "The pink."

"Pink is it." Taking the covers from her, the blonde quickly arranged the bed. Leading the girl by the hand she got her settled into it and climbed next to her. Tugging the little thief to her, she made Kenzi's head rest into her bosom, one of her arms rounding the girl's shoulder and forcing one of the girl's over her stomach. "Sleep now, baby."

Being the little good girl she was, Kenzi hadn't say a thing or put any resistance while Lauren got them confortable. But this was too much for the reserved girl. "Um… are you staying?"

"Yes."

"Um… don't you have a succubus to keep warm?"

"I'd rather be with you."

Frowning at that she inhaled what she had come to associate with the doctor, a little of antiseptic and soap, mixed with a soft lavender body spray and something that was just Lauren. "Why?"

"Because I care for you."

"Why?"

Lauren smiled softly, marveled at what she was going to say. "Because I love you." If somebody had told her last month she would end loving this little girl she would probably had laughed, and hard. It had took her Kenzi missing for almost a week for her to notice how much she cared for her, and how she really loved the spirit the younger girl had.

"Don't lie." Kenzi clenched the older woman's shirt in her hand, wondering why Lauren decided to be so cruel out of the blue.

"I'm not." The older woman kissed the top the raven haired head. "I do love you Kenz, and I'll always be here for you. I promise."

Deciding her heart and mind were not in condition to process that, Kenzi simply snuggled into the comfort that she rarely received. It was really the more comfortable she had been for ages, or at least since Bo had let her sleep in her bed when she had broken up with Nate.

"Sleep, baby girl." Lauren voice was soft and caring. "I'll be here in the morning."

XxXxX

"_YA budu yeye utrom." _

_I'll be here in the morning._

_Those were the last words her Babka told her._

_She had spent the day playing in between the artic poppies that grew on the Babka's garden. Her Mama and that man were away, in a most needed vacation. Her Mama's words, not hers. Nika decided to stay at Aunt Ludmila's house, to play video games with Dima and Yura the whole night._

_She was six, so nobody bothered to ask where she wanted to be. Not that she would have chosen other place than her Babka's house. _

_That house was her safe heaven, a place where she could act like the little mischievous girl she was. It was the place where she could run, yell, sing and dance with nobody scolding her._

_It was a place where she could forget about her problems, nightmares and fears. Where she could push that man to the very back of her mind._

_Her Babka had baked her favorite cookies, and let her eat all of them at dinner. She promised to have a complete meal the next day, but for now, she was beyond happy._

_So, it had been quite the surprise when she had gotten up in the morning, expecting to smell of the sweet oatmeal her Babka always made, only to be met by silence. Thinking her Babka had made her a bowl of fruit to fight the sugar intake she had had last night, she got up with a smile and searched for her._

_The first place she looked was the kitchen. Not only was no Babka there, but also there was no bowl of fruit or any other breakfast._

_The second place was the garden. Only that man was standing in the corner of it, just were the artic poppies ended and the sweet grass started. There was something different in him this time, though. He had always looked at the house with a blank stare, but today he was actually looking at her with sad eyes, silent tears running down his face. But still, no Babka._

_From there she started looking everywhere, from her Babka's craft room, were the old lady liked to knit soft quilts and shirts for her, to the attic were sometimes the old Russian liked to sit and remember her life in her homeland. _

_She was nowhere to be found… the house was empty. The more rooms and places she looked, the more her anxiety and fear grew._

_There was only one place where she hadn't looked yet. Everybody knew her Babka's room was off limits to all the kids, just like her pink room was to all the boys. One morning Sasha had entered the place to play with her Babka's old clothes and necklaces. She had spent an hour looking at the corner of that same room with a sore bottom and a promise to another spanking just before going to bed that night, just because she had already known the room was closed for everybody and still decided to disobey._

_So, with a heavy heart and a nervous stomach, she decided she needed to know if her Babka was okay. Not once had the old lady left the house without her, nor had she spend the morning locked away. She was sure her Babka was in the room, and she dreaded to know exactly why she was there._

_Turning softly the doorknob she entered the quiet room. Instantly she saw her. There in the bed, was the old lady lying quietly in the middle of the massive bed. Letting a sigh, Sasha got closer to her Babka, tears already running down her eyes at the relief of seeing her Babka unharmed. Her bottom be darned, if her Babka wanted to skin her alive, then she was more than welcome as long as she let her cuddle with her and cry away her fear._

_The first sign that something was indeed wrong appeared when she got closer and her Babka didn't shift._

_The second sign that something was wrong was when she climbed in the bed and her Babka didn't wake._

_The third sing came when she called her name softly and got close enough to notice that her chest wasn't moving._

_Tears still running down her face, little Sasha ran to the telephone and dialed 911. _

_Her Babka couldn't leave her. Not now. Not ever._

_She was the only one that actually pay attention to her._

_The only one that really loved her and saw her as a person, not a doll. She feared everybody would start forgetting her, hurting her._

_If only she could know exactly how right she was._

XxXxX

_They shall not get my loving child  
As long as I am by your side  
I am the shadow runner in time  
Here and there, never to find  
Here and there, never to find_

And I run and I hide in the dark  
Threatened by each distant bark  
Sleep little love, for heaven's sake  
Sleep for I'm here to fulfil your fate  
Sleep for I'm here to fulfil your fate

_**Lullaby (Lyriel, 2010)**_


	9. Ever Dream

_A few months later…_

"Are you ready to go, baby?" Lauren asked when Kenzi climbed down the stairs sulking. She walked to the kitchen island and sat on it heavily, right in front of a small cup of dark liquid. The smell of it was really sweet, but thanks to months of taking that same potion just after breakfast she wasn't fooled anymore. Not only did the potion was thick as mud, but it was also as bitter as gal and spicy as a habanero. "Drink up, baby girl."

Kenzi shot a small glare to Lauren. The older woman was always overly cheerful when she asked her to take the medicine. "I don't wanna!" She pushed the cup away from her, spilling a bit of it in the counter.

Lauren smile disappear, a stern look replacing it. "Drop the attitude, young lady. We need to get moving and we are not leaving until you take it."

Kenzi whined pathetically but took the cup in her hands. Holding her breath she gathered her courage and promptly drank the whole thing. Fighting her gag reflex as best as she could, she looked at Lauren with hurt evident in her eyes. She was tired of drinking the stupid antidote… even if it was working. She no longer was hurt by her fears and nightmares, and she could be around without her collar for most of the day.

"Good girl." The doctor smiled and gave her a lollipop from the pocket of her lab coat to help with the aftertaste. "Are you sure you don't want to stay at the Dal and wait for Bo?"

The young girl shook her head and sucked onto her lemon lollipop. Shortly after she had 'returned' home Bo had made the nasty decision to join Dyson at the police station as part of a program where the three 'sides' where working on. Not only Bo had joined, but also a fair haired Dark Valkyrie. Now the three of them were trying to solve cases involving all the county and had to travel across it more often than not, making Bo leave their home for days at the time.

Dyson had changed thanks to her 'accident', as they liked to call it. The wolf had really resigned Bo's love to Lauren, even going so far as to protect the doctor from clueless Fae that tried to hit on her. Both he and the doctor had starting building a good relationship, even bordering in friendship, and the fight for Bo's affections was long forgotten. The blond Fae start acting different towards her too. He was like that noisy uncle everybody had somewhere, always wanting to make sure she was okay and if she needed anything. At first it had been sweet, but now it was simply annoying.

Kenzi looked at how Lauren started gathering her things to leave for the Clinic, still sucking her sweet, one hand never letting go of the stick. Not only had the Ash and Morrigan wanted to test with their police department, but several more, including their medical one. So, very similar as to what Bo was doing, Lauren was now part of a clinic not too far from downtown where Dark and Light could go and got attended. The doctor had been thrilled when asked to join as a representative from the Unaligned, not the Light. It had been the last act that had dictated her freedom from the Ash.

Ever since she had gotten the job, and Bo had started working, really working, Kenzi had started to feel lost. She was still really shaken at what had happened and, contrary to what Trick had wanted to believe, the antidote and collar didn't work as well as they had hoped. Not only were they working too slow for everybody's tastes, but the side effects were concerning. At least to Lauren.

The downfall of wearing the collar, as they had discovered immediately, was that it had not helped to keep the nightmares away, but had extinguished all the girl's feelings, which, they came to understand, was what made the girl vulnerable to the physical traumas. This only led Kenzi to constant confusion and something akin to desperation. The girl had felt so lost and troubled that had started taking the collar at night, leaving her open for attacks.

It had taken several scolding and some grounding by Lauren to make Kenzi stop taking it at night. In compromise, Lauren had promise the girl to let her take it out in order to liberate her feelings as often as she wanted, with the only condition that she needed to be with someone. That someone usually being Lauren herself or, amazingly enough, Trick.

Kenzi took advantage of this allowance as often as she could. She felt like a kettle just before boiling point. She needed to relieve the pressure to breathe and live. Lauren was always at her disposal, even if was busy at the clinic. And Trick often babysat her when Bo was away and Lauren had to visit an infectious patient or had to go into surgery. It was dumb, yet comforting, to be constantly watched. It made her feel loved… yet untrusted.

Maybe it had to do with her constant fucking up. She had found that most of the things she did on daily basis were not what Lauren, thought was proper for a seventeen-years-old. She was currently grounded by Lauren due to some drinking she did the weekend before. Hale and Val tried to spend as much time as they could with her, taking her shopping or to the cinema. They both acted like she was their little cousin that needed to be taken care of in a funny, yet responsible, way. They had been convinced by a cute little thief to go to the Dragon and drink the night away. It was perfectly fine and usual, or so she had said. Both had learned their lesson when they had delivered a wasted Kenzi to Bo and Lauren. While the succubus was more than used to see her little sister plastered, the doctor had very different standards for the young human to live by. Not only Kenzi had been still underage, and thus prohibited to drink, but the doctor had caught a kidney infection in the thief while running some tests on her. Making her drink was not only irresponsible, but also a hazard to her immediate health. That was just one of the many opportunities that had helped Lauren show exactly how good she was at lecturing the girl.

Nobody could believe the mama bear Lauren had transformed into. The doctor had really taken into her caretaker role after Kenzi had showed signs of attachment towards her. Everybody could see the love grow between the two, and while Kenzi and Bo's relationship was akin to sisters, Lauren and Kenzi's was like mother-daughter. Lauren was now Kenzi's legal guardian and the thief found herself responding to the older female and working to avoid making her mad… or avoid Lauren finding out when she did something she learned the doctor disapproved of.

"Go get a jacket." Lauren told Kenzi as she checked her briefcase for the second time. "I'll wait for you in the car."

Sighing, Kenzi did as was told and gathered the things she would need to spend the day in Lauren's office at the Clinic, mainly some math problems and a history book that Lauren so kindly had imposed on her. Shortly after the older females started working most of the day Kenzi found out she didn't like to be alone with her thoughts, it made her feel unloved and vulnerable. Knowing Lauren was smitten with her, the very next day she felt so bad it had border on abandoned, she had begged to go to the Clinic with her. It didn't matter she had to follow a list of rules a mile long, or that she was strictly forbidden to enter the pharmacy, she was allowed to spend as much time she wanted at the Clinic.

It had become her second home. Not only she napped in the couch at Lauren's office, often waking up crying or screaming, and played her PSP in the garden where the patients strolled around, but she also had made some friends with the kids at the children ward.

That particular fact was something that had surprised everyone. The girl couldn't show any signs of happiness or joy, but the kids had taken a like to her and had shared their toys with her. Kenzi, then, started reading to the kids with her feeless voice that only amused the kids. Now that she was out of the collar the kids were happier around her. Too bad she was grounded and had to spend the day at Lauren's office. She had been looking forward to play 'damsel in distress' with her friends for a while now.

XxXxX

Lauren sighed as Kenzi sat sulking on her chair at the office. The girl had just earned another day without her PSP after being caught sneaking into the Pediatric Ward. "You know this would gonna happen, baby." She massaged the bridge of her nose when Kenzi glared at her. "It's not the first time we'd gone through this."

"You are mean." The girl pouted. She couldn't believe she had been caught. She had been so close! And she still couldn't believe she let Lauren punish her and take away her things.

"And, you, young lady, grounded." She stood beside the girl and combed her hand through Kenzi's raven hair. "I love you, baby, but you need to understand there are consequences when you misbehave."

Those words made Kenzi's heart clench, she hated disappointing Lauren. The older woman had finally made her believe she was truly loved, and she was glad to have somebody like her in her life, that loved her enough to take the time of her day to punish and scold her. She was sure if Lauren wasn't out of the picture and it had only been Bo and her, most of the things she had been grounded for would had been laughed off and brushed apart as something the crazy Kenzi did.

"I'd rather you spank me than sit here." She mumbled under her breath as Lauren walked away from her and towards the door.

The doctor stopped and looked back. "Don't tempt me, Kenz." Her face stern and her voice hard. "If you come back home drunk once more I won't doubt to take you over my knee." Kenzi blushed at that. Lauren wasn't supposed to hear her. "The same will happen if you try to sneak away in the middle of the night again."

"It was only once." She muttered as Lauren left the office. The doctor hearing her just fine, yet deciding to let it slide. She knew why Kenzi had tried to run away a little over a month ago.

Returning to her rounds, Lauren conceded that Kenzi had been right to want out of the house that night. That night Bo had been colder than usual to the girl and she had needed out. It hadn't really helped that Kenzi had been collar-less the few hours she had try to interact with the succubus, only to be brushed apart. The brunette had changed just like everybody else around them. While Dyson, Hale, Val, Trick and Lauren herself had changed for the better and had actually started treating her Kenzi better, Vex and Bo had started avoiding her. In a way she could understand why both of them were trying their hardest to avoid the girl.

Vex felt guilty beyond anyone's comprehension. The Dark Fae firmly believed that if he had been true to his word and taken care of Kenzi when she was little the girl would had a chance to live another life, one that could had been less painful, less traumatic.

The Mesmer didn't know how to act towards her and thus had returned to England with the pretext of one of his clubs going bankrupt. Out of guilt and love, because everybody knew Vex loved the girl, he had started sending gifts at least every week. Kenzi's wardrobe had gotten big enough that most of her clothes didn't fit in her dresser anymore and Lauren had made a note to buy the girl more furniture for her room.

Bo was another story altogether. Yes, she loved Kenzi, more than anyone, but the girl didn't see it. Not only had Bo started traveling for days at a time, and spend most of the daylight at the Division, but when she was actually home she had started locking herself in their room, only going out to eat or to leave the house.

Lauren herself had gotten caught in this. Bo rarely spend time with her, and when they did was in the security of their room or when they had to work on cases together. The doctor thought her girlfriend was being stupid and heartless, she knew Bo loved them, really loved them, but the succubus was doing everything within her power to make them believe otherwise. She got that Kenzi had been reserved towards the brunette at the beginning, and that at night it was Lauren's arms that she seek, but it had passed less than a month before the little thief had actively seek some love form Bo at day.

Her efforts had fallen in deaf ears and cold arms. Every time Kenzi tried to talk to the succubus Bo suddenly got a headache or was in a rush to be somewhere. When she had actually go for a hug, hugs that had always been so easily given, Bo simply brushed her aside. Kenzi had stopped trying with the brunette that night when she had tried to escape.

Bo was being a bitch and all could see that.

XxXxX

"_Yo, Bo Bo!" She yelled when the succubus entered the house. Kenzi was happy today. It had been a while since had been that happy. Not only Lauren had told her she could take her collar for the rest of the evening, Vex had send her an amazing pair of boots, Trick had allowed her one glass of beer and Hale had gotten her one of the most gory videogames ever, but Bo was due to arrive anytime soon. She hadn't seen the succubus for four days, FOUR freaking days, and she was missing her lovely Fae, even if she didn't want to spend time with her._

"_Baby, let her enter the house." Lauren slight chiding from the kitchen stopped her in her tracks. She had jumped from the couch and was ready to tackle the brunette when the doctor made her freeze._

"_Sorry." She smiled wide. She was bubbling with excitement at seeing her sista. Both she and Lauren had been waiting for Bo for hours and she just couldn't made herself wait any longer._

"_Hey." Bo said tiredly. Her clothes were a mess, brown smudges all around her face and her eyes puffy with tiredness. She let the duffle bag she was holding crash in the floor at the door, ratting sounds making them believe something in there actually broke._

"_I'd miss you so much!" Kenzi finally yelled and launched herself to the older brunette. Bo, from her part, easily sidestepped her and slipped past her._

"_I'm going to shower." She simply said while walking to the stairs, leaving a wounded thief and a fuming doctor._

_X_

"… _and so, Trick said he could give me some, if, and only if, I drank a littler of cranberry juice afterwards." Kenzi's exited chatter made the silence at the table a little less uncomfortable. The girl was happily telling them how she had managed to drink a beer that evening, making Lauren frown._

"_And did you?" The doctor's raised eyebrow made the girl know she wasn't supposed to do that. Ups._

_Chewing her pasta slowly Kenzi smiled sheepishly. "I did. I drank the whole littler and then some." She swallowed. "I promise I only drank that only glass of beer. It won't do me any bad, right?"_

_Shaking her head, Lauren simply continue eating._

_Knowing Lauren didn't see things as she did, Kenzi turned to the only ally that had always let her drink to her hearts content. "Bo!" she whined. "Tell her I've always drink more! Tell her a glass is not bad!"_

_The succubus made a non-committal grunt._

"_Bo!" the girl whined again and grabbed the Fae's arm to try and made her cooperate._

_What happened next surprised everyone at the table. _

_Bo snatched her arm from Kenzi's hands and turned to the girl angry. "Kenzi!" She yelled, actually yelled at her. "Stop it!" She took a deep breath and continue at a more controlled volume. "I got a headache and your whining isn't helping. So stop it."_

_Kenzi's eyes were wide and a little scared. "I'm sorry…"_

_The brunette sighed again. "Just keep quiet." _

_The thief nodded and turned to her plate, appetite forgotten. Lauren looked at Bo amazed. One thing was to be uncomfortable around the youngest girl and other totally different was to make her feel as miserable as the succubus was feeling. She too turned again to her pasta. She was so going to talk to Bo and possibly make her sleep in the couch, but this was not the time, not with Kenzi at the table. Her mother always told her not to fight with your partner near the kids… it only scare and scar them._

_Silence surrounded them, none of them really eating anymore. Kenzi pushed around the food on her plate until the sting in her eyes got truly unbearable. "May be excused?" Her voice was soft and trembled with pain. She knew she was to stay at the table until her food was gone, one of Lauren's many new rules. She hoped the doctor could understand and let her hide away._

_Lauren nodded. "Leave your plate, I'll take care of it."_

_Kenzi got up grateful. At least she could leave immediately and wasn't forced to take her plate to the kitchen, as Lauren asked her to do on daily basis. "Goo' night." She mumbled and fled from the room before the first tears started falling._

_The older females looked as the girl practically ran to her room with heavy hearts. Bo couldn't believe she had snapped at the girl after everything that had happened. She was nervous around Kenzi, always fearing to hurt her girl more… just as she had done._

"_Bo-" Lauren's tone was warning. A lecture was sure coming._

"_Don't." The succubus interrupted. "You don't need to tell me. I know." She knew she had hurt the girl again. She knew she was being heartless. She knew she needed to be more open, less direct and more loving._

_Lauren sighed. "Then why?"_

_Finally stopping trying to eat, Bo took her plate and Kenzi's and headed to the kitchen. Lauren followed suit, taking her plate and the few food still at the table. They worked silently, fixing the kitchen, putting the food away and washing the dishes by hand… one of the many down points of the Light taking away Lauren's former house._

_It still amazed Lauren how well they worked together, they were like a well-oiled clock, each one instinctively knowing what to do and never getting in the other's way. Unfortunately the job was done quickly and soon they were met with nothing to avoid the talk they both knew was needed to have. _

"_Bo-"_

"_Lauren-"_

_Both talked at the same time, neither continuing, waiting for the other to speak._

_Finally, it was the succubus who talked._

"_I'll sleep in the couch tonight."_

_And with that, the conversation was stored for other time._

XxXxX

Lauren shook her head to get rid of the memory. It was one of the many times that Bo had been questioned about her behavior, and one of the many times the succubus won't answer. It pained the doctor to know that no matter what happened Bo was still pushing Kenzi away, making the girl's emotional recovery impossible.

"Something on you mind, doctor?" Dr. Alyssa Scordato, the Psychology Chief asked her.

Lauren looked around. Without noticing it she had managed to finish her rounds and had ended at the doctor's lounge. She wondered briefly if the patients had have any issues and if she had solved them. "No." The answer was short and unconvincing.

Dr. Scordato, an older female with greying hair and kind eyes, simply smiled at her. She was sitting comfortably in one of the couches drinking a cup of coffee. "Have in mind I can feel when somebody is remembering bad times."

Lauren blinked at that. Sure she knew she was the only human in staff, but she certainly was so comfortable in her role she had forgotten that little fact. The older Fae was one of the most powerful within the Clinic. The Memory-Eater was surely one rare Fae and her expertise was well known within the medical community. Her researches about the mind and memory suppression not only on Fae but also on humans was remarkable and, if she wasn't a Fae who had been living for a millennia, they were most certain she could had have several Noble prizes by now.

"I'm worried about Kenzi." The answer came easy to the human once she was certain they were the only ones in the lounge and sat near the Fae doctor. Everybody knew about her little cargo, and everyone had accepted the fact the girl liked to shadow Lauren sometimes. The blonde was the only one to know that those days only came when Kenzi had had a bad night and had been plagued with nightmares.

"Is she still getting hurt while sleep?" The older doctor was the only one that knew the truth behind Kenzi's presence at the clinic… and only because she had sensed the pain and memories from the girl one day Kenzi had fallen sleep in Lauren's office.

"No." Lauren smiled slightly. "The remedy Trick came up with is working… the physical pain is gone now, but I fear she won't ever stop having bad dreams and getting lost in flashbacks."

Dr. Scordato frowned slightly. She had seen so many things in her many years, but she had never heard or know of a human infected by Pain-Eater poison and live to tell. She had known of a young Fae cocky enough to believe he could defeat the poison while awake, something to do with his special powers or something. The boy had died not two days after he had been infected, driven into madness by the nightmares and pain. The little unaligned human was sure a miracle to her. "How long was she infected before taking the medicine?"

Lauren echoed the older female frown. "If the math is correct, around six months… why?"

The Fae suppressed any emotion of disbelief from her face. "Just curious." She sipped her coffee. "Tell me, Dr. Lewis, what she dreams of exactly?"

"Her past. Abandonment, things like that."

The older doctor was silent a minute or so, silently pondering what Lauren had told her. "Would you mind if I speak with her?"

It was Lauren's turn to be silent. While she trusted every doctor in the clinic there was some hesitation to let someone near her baby. _Wait a minute! _Her mind screamed at her. _When did Kenzi become your baby? _Clearing her throat to get the shock out of her system, the doctor spoke. "I don't see why not."

XxXxX

"No." It was the petulant answer. It was even accompanied by crossed arms and a stomp of a foot.

"Just try it."

"No!" This time the girl turned and gave Lauren her back, stomping yet again her foot.

"Kenzi…" The tone was warning. She did not want a tantrum in the Clinic, especially if Kenzi ended kicking and screaming like she often did at the house when she was denied a chocolate or sweet. It amazed the doctor how the teen could so easily fall back to children habits, such as throwing tantrums, whining, wanting to avoid a bath, pouting if she was forced to eat vegetables and so many more little things that were endearing yet so annoying.

"I said no!" The little thief screamed, ready to drop to the ground and start kicking and pounding in any instant. One thing was to be grounded in the doctor's office and other was to be asked to talk to a shrink. She was not crazy.

"Hey, young lady!" Lauren scolded to the girl. "Watch the attitude!"

"No!" She was half way to the ground, letting herself drop like a boneless mass, to start the most epic tantrum in her life when Lauren's hand grabbed her upper arm and promptly landed two hard smacks at the girl's behind.

Both freeze at that. It was the first time Lauren had punish the girl physically and it had stunned both females.

"Um," Dr. Scordato cleared her throat, making the younger females jump. They had forgotten the older Fae was in the room. "I'll wait outside." And with that she left them to resolve their problems.

Kenzi looked at the doctor a little scared. Had she over step a line? Was the doctor mad enough to really spank her now? Were spankings punishments she was now to avoid? Why did those smacks felt more loving than any other punishment she had ever received? Did Lauren hated her now? The last thought was the strongest and she couldn't stop the tears that started running at the mere thought of having the doctor hate her.

"Oh, baby." Lauren sighed and embraced the girl to her, letting the tears wet her lab coat. "I'm sorry."

Kenzi simply shook her head. She wasn't mad, just upset. In fact she was oddly comforted and happy that Lauren cared so much as to stop a behavior she was losing control of. She didn't know why but lately she felt comfortable falling back into habits that were usually common in spoiled kids. There was just something liberating about not thinking and simply acting. "It's okay." It hadn't hurt… unless that was the way Lauren showed her hate.

"No its not. I promised not to hurt you, and yet I did." Lauren had to fight back her own tears as she spoke. "I'm so sorry."

"Do you hate me?" Kenzi asked scared. She grabbed the doctor's lab coat in her hands, ready for her heart to be broken.

"What?!" That certainly scared the doctor worse than the thought of hurting the girl. "No! I would never hate you!"

Kenzi looked up and met brown eyes. Lauren was easily a head taller than her, and, while she wore high heels more often than not, she was currently barefoot due the thick carpet in the office she liked to feel in her feet ever chance she got. "Really?"

The doctor looked at the pair of pale eyes she came to love so much and her heart hurt at the hope and faith in them. "I swear. Even if you are the naughtiest girl ever, I would never hate you."

Kenzi took the words at heart and curled into the doctor. Lauren, knowing that Kenzi needed some cuddle time simply moved them to the couch and let the girl wrap herself around her, the girl's legs hugged her waist while her arms rounded her torso and her head hid in her neck. Kenzi was like a little koala seeking comfort, small and warm, while at the same time heavy and extremely cuddly.

"I love you." The words were spoken quietly and it took the doctor a second to really register what had been said. Once she understood she was stunned. It was the first time Kenzi had said those words to her and it warmed her heart beyond reason to hear them.

"I love you too, little rascal." Her words were mixed with tears and they were not as strong as she wanted them to be, but they were true and from the heart.

"You know," Kenzi broke the small silence they had fell in, just enjoying the other's company. "It would be okay, um, if you, um…"

"Yes? If I what?"

"If you spank me…" it was just above a whisper, but Lauren had no trouble hearing it.

The doctor smiled, relieved that the girl was not hurt by her earlier actions. "I'm glad to hear that."

"Huh?"

"I told you next time you get drunk or try to escape you'll end over my knee. I'm glad I won't have to force you too much." The playful glint in her eyes got lost to the girl in her lap.

The young girl simply gulped. That was not what she had meant! She was simply trying to set the doctor at ease because she was aware of what had passed through her mind. Lauren and she hadn't really talked about what had happened in her childhood, but she was aware the doctor knew she was abused, at least physically and sexually, and she hadn't wanted Lauren to think she was abusing her. But she wasn't looking for Lauren to think that spanking her was okay, because it was a no-no. Her butt was so not okay with that!

"Would you give Dr. Scordato a chance?" The blonde asked after a couple of minutes. She detangled Kenzi from her and sat her sideways in her lap, still close to her but far away enough to gauge the girl's expressions.

"I'm not crazy." Kenzi muttered, crossing her arms again.

Lauren laughed at the childish pout she received. "I know you are not, baby. I just want you to talk to someone that could help you figure your nightmares and feelings out."

"Shrinks are for crazy people."

"That's not true. Many 'normal' people sometimes need help and that's why psychologists exist. They expertise in the mind and emotions, they help people sort out their problems and fears. She is one of the best in the field and she is also a Memory Eater, she can help your case especially. I'm sure of that."

Kenzi looked at the woman she had come so close to, even closer than Bo, and saw honesty and true impotence in her brown eyes. Lauren wanted her to be better. She needed to be better. "If I don't like it, can I stop?"

Lauren smile got so big Kenzi wondered if her face would split. "Anytime you want."

Kenzi blushed a little and looked at her hands that were holding the older human's lab coat yet again. "Would you stay with me?"

"If you want me to."

"I- I think I'd like to try." Kenzi said softly. "Just once." She needed to be better, she needed to stop remembering that vividly. She needed to sort out her problems and, even though she was certain they were trying, Hale, Val, Trick and Lauren simply couldn't help her.

"Thank you, baby. I'm so proud of you." The girl's heart warmed at that. Even if she ended not liking the shrink, at least she had made Lauren happy for a little while.

XxXxX

"I'm really glad you agreed to this." The old Fae told her. She was pretty, but not as pretty as her Lauren. Her grey hair was longer than hers and her bright green eyes sparked with wisdom.

"Lauren said it could help, ma'am." She mumbled into the younger doctor's shirt. Yes, she had agreed to talk with the shrink, but she was not leaving her Lauren lap's security.

"Call me Alyssa, baby." The older doctor said gently, adopting the pet name she had hear Lauren use oh so many times.

Kenzi simply nodded. She had gotten used to the pet name fairly easily. It was a name everybody in her life had called her at some point and she was sure it was because her petite size. The name had always sat wrong with her, sometimes it was meant as a jab, sometimes it was they called her before raping her, but somehow Lauren had made the pet name work. It was the pet name everybody start using after the doctor did and it now made her feel safe and loved.

"So tell me, what is your name?"

"Kenzi."

The oldest human smiled. "Your real name."

Kenzi looked at Lauren wounded. Nobody besides their little group knew about that. Why did that doctor know who she was?!

"Dr. Lewis didn't tell me anything, baby. I know. That is part of my gift." She reassured the girl while looking at the young doctor.

"It true, Kenz. I didn't tell anything."

The lithe thief sighed. She needed to be honest if she wanted to get better. She knew it. She also knew Lauren trusted this Fae, and she trusted Lauren. "Aleksandra."

"Okay, little Lexi, tell me about yourself. Anything you want me to know." Her eyes shining just slightly a deep purple.

Kenzi looked at the oldest female. This was her chance to tell someone everything, anything. This was also the chance for Lauren to know what had really happened. She needed to tell her Lauren what had happened, but she didn't know how. This was her chance.

However, she was still too scared to share who she was with anybody… especially Lauren. Instead of talking about her past, as she knew they wanted her to, she started talking about her day, what she did at the Clinic and how she had been unfairly caught trying to enter the Pediatric Ward.

The doctors looked at the girl, both confused. Lauren was shocked the girl was even talking that freely about anything, and especially to someone she just met. Dr. Scordato, however, was shocked that the girl was speaking of something totally different than her past. She was a Memory Eater, people start talking about their past so she could feed easily without them being the wiser. She was subtle, just a little fact here or there, but this girl was surely a piece of work.

The more Kenzi spoke, the better she liked the girl. She was strange and totally different than any human she had ever encountered.

As sessions went by the doctor forgot to even try feeding. Sure her initial intentions had been totally selfish, feeding from a tortured soul was the best feast her kind could encounter, but this girl could not only deflect her powers and influence, but she had simply caught her heart.

The little thief sure knew how be liked and loved, she simply was. It was such a shame the girl couldn't see that. It didn't matter she won't feed out of the human, she simply wanted the girl to feel better and happier. She was going to make sure of that.

XxXxX

The blood chilling scream cut through the night and made both females jump from sleep. A second shriek came to them and it took less than a second to realize it had come from inside the house.

"Kenzi!" Bo fled the bed and ran to her little sister's room.

The girl was curled in the floor, one hand tangled in her hair, while the other clenched he shirt right over her heart. Octi was at her side and tears ran down her face.

"Oh, my God, Kenz!" Bo kneeled before the girl and was startled when the girl practically jumped in her arms.

"I'm so sorry!" She sobbed onto her neck. "Please, Bo, let me back in, please!"

Bo sat there, stunned for a second, before embracing the little girl in her arms. "Shh… You're safe now."

"I love you!" The girl shouted in her lap. "Please, I'm sorry!"

The succubus was really confused. For the last five months Kenzi had taken her medicine like a good little girl, and for most of that time hadn't taken off her collar for more than a couple of hours, and always supervised by someone. Only recently she had started to be without it, and only for the last couple of weeks had she started to sleep without it. Even though there had been some progress, the nightmares were still frequent enough to wake Lauren at least every other night, and by extension, her. But Kenzi had never answer to her. Only to Lauren.

The girl had refused to seek comfort in her arms, always reaching for the doctor. No matter if she was the first one in her room, she had always shunned away from her, preferring to wait for the doctor to calm her. Given that, Bo had restored to wait for Lauren to arrive before even entering the young girl's room. Today had been one of those few times Kenzi had screamed enough to make her panic and rush to her side.

The girl kept chanting she was sorry, and Bo's heart broke at the tears staining her kimono. "What are you sorry for, sweet pea?" The pet name escaped her easily and she wondered when she had caught Lauren's habit to call the girl by them.

The answer came many minutes later, once her voice was too sore to continue apologizing. The girl cried herself out and started hiccup in her lap, clinging to her as if her life depended on it. Out of the corner of her eye, Bo could see Lauren leaning in the door frame, watching silently. "I-I'm sorry f-for everything."

"Oh, baby, you shouldn't be sorry. You did nothing wrong."

Kenzi curled into her more, clenching her robe tighter and hiding her face in the succubus neck. "You don't love me anymore."

Those words were a cold shower for Bo. She loved the girl in her lap. She was her little sister, her better half. The girl represented everything she fought for, the kindness, the love, the friendship, the innocence, the trust, _everything._

The succubus felt movement beside her and fairly certain, Lauren was sitting beside them on the floor. "Baby," her voice was soft and calming. Kenzi instantly responded to it and leaned away from Bo and into the doctor's arms. Once Kenzi was comfortable into what the youngest girl had become to know as her more calming place, Lauren continued speaking. "Bo loves you very deeply. She'd give her life for you."

Kenzi shrugged in the doctor's lap. She didn't really know what to believe… she was only certain of what she was feeling, and she was feeling as if Bo didn't care anymore. Lauren had been great, letting her cuddle in her lap every time she wanted, comforting her with words and gestures. She pushed her just enough to make her feel loved and cared for. Bo was more guarded. She had stopped trying to touch her, talk to her or simply see her.

Sure, at first she flinched when Bo touched her, but she flinched with everybody, Lauren being the only exception. Still, the rest of the group tried. She was not longer timid around them, and she responded better the more they tried. Bo had stopped trying a month in. She was sure she didn't love her anymore and only have her in the house out of pity.

"Kenz… I love you with all my heart." Bo got out of her shock when the girl pulled from her lap. "You are my everything, my sister, my best friend, the one that completes me in ways nobody else can." Her words were shaky, trying to hold back tears.

Kenzi looked at her with sad eyes, tears already running down her cheeks again. "Then why you're always away? Why do you shut me out?"

Lauren and Kenzi looked at the succubus expectantly, waiting for an answer. It didn't really surprised them when Bo simply got up and left the room.

Both knew the Fae didn't have that answer.

XxXxX

"I'm really worried, Trick." Lauren said as the old Fae cleaned some glasses at the bar. "The antidote didn't work."

"She's not longer getting hurt, does she?" Trick answered worriedly.

"Not really, but she is still getting nightmares. She barely sleeps at night and the naps she takes in the day are only leaving her more tired." Lauren said a little sad.

Trick nodded at that. "What about the collar? Is she still wearing it?"

"Only when the nightmares and feelings overwhelm her. So, yes, every day after waking up screaming. She wears it at least until she falls asleep again."

Trick sighed. The girl had taken the antidote for almost six months before she had started showing signs of being poisoned by it. Kenzi had been now out of the medicine for a couple of weeks and her condition hadn't improved, but fortunately it hadn't got worse either. No matter how small the dosses she had taken it should had worked perfectly, especially if the dosses had almost poisoned her again. "Maybe is no longer the Phobos' Dream that is making her have nightmares? She talks with Dr. Scordato, maybe she knows something."

Lauren mulled over this but couldn't really talk to Trick any longer because as soon as she was about to speak the door at the Dal opened and a teary eyed Kenzi entered the bar holding tightly onto Val's hand. The Pombero eyed Lauren sadly as Kenzi let her go and hurried to the doctor's side to climb on her lap, almost throwing Lauren out of her stool. "Hey, what happened?"

Kenzi was silently sniffing and the tears were running down her cheeks by now while she hid her face in the doctor's shoulder. "I'm scared." Her voice was tiny and full of fear.

Lauren hugged the girl to her, gently rubbing her back. "Oh baby girl, what are you afraid of?"

"She fell asleep at the movies." Val said quietly. It pained her to see the strong little girl reduced to a crying baby in the older human arms. She had hoped Kenzi was fine by now, everybody did, but they were always shown exactly how broke the girl had ended every time they saw her sleep.

Lauren sighed and exchanged glances with Trick, silently telling him _'What did I tell you?' _"Baby girl, it was just a dream, I promise nothing will hurt you."

"Not even you?" The voice was still tiny and infantile.

"Especially me, or any of us. We love you, baby, we will never hurt you."

"What about Bo?" The girl had forgotten where they were and didn't think twice to ask. She was feeling vulnerable and needed her Lauren's comfort.

The doctor cursed in her mind. The succubus was still as evasive with the girl, and was still leaving for days with Dyson and Tamsin. It had been half a year for God's sake! And Bo was still hurting the precious girl in her arms. "What was your dream about?" She asked instead of answering.

Kenzi buried into Lauren more, not surprised at the change in topics. "That day…"

She didn't need to say more, they all knew what she was talking about. No matter it had been almost seven months, the girl still remembered everything the succubus had yelled at her and every feeling she had felt that day.

"It's in the past, baby."

"I want to see Alyssa." Kenzi said quietly, only loud enough for Lauren to hear.

"That is okay, baby. Do you want me to call her or will you?"

"You. Please." It made the doctor a little happy that Kenzi had responded so well to Dr. Scordato. The old Fae and the little human had started talking every day at the Clinic at least for some minutes. Lauren had been present only the first meeting, it hadn't answered her any questions, but at least Kenzi was happy.

XxXxX

"How do you feel?"

"Lost."

"Where are you?"

"I don't know…"

"What do you want?"

"To forget. I want to forget."

Dr. Scordato nodded tightly at the girl. "We have talked about this. I can do that, but you will truly forget everything."

Kenzi nodded in return. She was no stupid. She had talked to the doctor for over two months and the Fae had made her a proposition the very first time she had talked to her. A proposition Lauren was aware of but didn't really approved of. She was finally eighteen and legally Lauren could no longer tell her what to do… not that really stopped the doctor from trying. "I think I'm ready."

XxXxX

"_I don't think I'm ready for that." Kenzi said tightly. _

"_It is just an option."_

"_I don't think I want to forget my family and my life."_

"_I'm sorry I can't erase just the bad memories. I don't work like that." Dr. Scordato said truly sad. At first she wanted to know the girl and see what had made her so especial and so resilient at the Pain-Eater poison. The girl was something she had never seen, she was a strange human and her mind didn't quiet worked like the rest of the humans she had worked with. There was something truly amazing within that brain._

"_I- I guess I'll think about it." _

XxXxX

"Are you sure, baby?" Lauren asked her worriedly. She was not happy with what Kenzi wanted to do. It was not healthy and it was just an escape from her reality. The girl needed to face her problems, not forget them.

"Yeah. I'm sure." Kenzi had thought about this since Alyssa told her it was an option. The older Fae offered to erase her memory and leave her blank to start again. She was tired of everything, but she hadn't want to forget that drastically. She was sure of that, but she was also aware that if she didn't do something like this, then she won't ever gain herself back.

Lauren was amazing, yes. And she had come to see her like that mother she had always yearned for, but it was not enough. Sure Trick, Val, Hale, Dyson and Vex were around and tried to make her feel loved within their family… but she remembered what she used to have with Bo and everything just feel bad again.

It didn't help that none of her dead relatives had come to visit her since the accident happened. The last time she had seen Dima and Yura was in Vex's home, the day he attacked her. The last time she saw her Babka was when she was kneeling in front of her grave a couple of days before she was found… and Nika, well Nika had disappeared on her when Vex told everyone who he was to her and the role he played in his brother's death.

She still saw dead people all around, that's why she liked the Clinic. The dead would be around and roam, but none of them would actually approach her to talk, like so many living did. It was nice, to be around people just content to see you around and not being bothered by them. If she didn't talk to them they wouldn't get near her.

So, even if Lauren was amazing and did loved her with all her heart, knowing so many people she had hold dear didn't love her anymore was enough motivation to accept Dr. Scordato's offer and have the Memory-eater erase all her memories.

"Please, baby, think it thoroughly." Lauren begged her. They were in the blonde's office at the Clinic and the doctor had been beyond surprised when the little thief entered to talk to her. Usually her sessions with Dr. Scordato were longer.

"I have. Ever since Alyssa told me we could do this."

"Kenzi, you don't know how a Memory Eater works, you don't know if she'll erase everything or just some parts of it. You don't-"

"But I do." Kenzi interrupted her. "I've talked to her several times about this, and I've read all the books you have in here. I know what could happen and I'm not longer afraid."

Lauren perked at that. "You'd read everything in here?" Her tone was disbelieving. The office was fairly big, and beside her desk, the couch and a small lad station, the space was filled with bookcases. Heck, most of the books and thesis in there were simply in the floor because there were so many they didn't fit in their proper place.

Kenzi smiled at her. Truly smiled. The happiness and determination reached her eyes for the first time in over six months and that made the doctors eyes widen

"Lauren, you've got me grounded enough and bored enough to start reading your books. I mean, the first ones were hard but entertaining, and the more I read the more I liked them, and the more interesting they got. Believe me, I've read everything in here and I know what I am doing."

It was with that statement that Lauren knew she had lost.

Kenzi was looking at her with fire in her eyes. It was a fire that had been extinguished for several months, a fire that had burnt so brightly before her accident that amazed the doctor a human could have. It was the fire of a survivor, of a warrior. It was the fire she longed to see in her little thief eyes and she knew that if it was shining so bright it was because the girl had made up her mind.

"When?" Lauren simply asked.

Kenzi's smile was so big it stunned the doctor more. "Bo and Dyson are due tonight, and I want everybody to know. So, tomorrow."

XxXxX

They were all shocked. The girl in front of them was someone they thought they won't see ever again. The little thief was back and she had a purpose. It was not something they could understand, but at they were too stunned to really know what to say.

"… so, Alyssa will help me and hopefully everything would be alright."

"Wait a minute." Bo said from her spot at the bar. It was early in the afternoon and she was alarmed when Lauren had called for an emergency meeting not an hour ago. The doctor had left for the Clinic in the morning with Kenzi, leaving a tired succubus behind. She got shocked, though, when she arrived at the Dal and all the gang was already there. Val, Hale, Dyson, Lauren, Kenzi, Trick, hell, even Tamsin was there. But, she was also a female in a lab coat she didn't know. "Are you telling me this woman here is going to erase your memory?"

Kenzi looked at Lauren briefly and the turned to Bo, clutching tightly the little satchel she had over her shoulder. "That's what I said." The fire in her eyes died for a moment, yet it returned with a little more force.

"What? No!" The succubus instantly got angry. Who was Kenzi to decide that with a Fae she didn't know?

Kenzi flinched. This was going in a direction she didn't want it to. "I've think about it… so yeah, I'm doing it."

Bo laughed. It was deep and sarcastic. "What? Are you going to trust a Fae we just met?!"

Everybody exchanged glances at that. What the hell was going on?

"I assure you, Ms. Dennis, that Kenzi and I have worked out the details and she is certain of her decision." Dr. Scordato told the succubus.

"Excuse me, lady, but I think Kenzi is not fit to decide that. We don't know you and frankly I don't trust you. So, no, I won't let you to touch her." Everybody could see the blue lingering behind Bo's brown eyes. She was losing it.

"Bo, I know her and I trust her." Kenzi said, her voice trembling. She was getting scared, this was getting too close to what had started this whole mess.

"What? You found her in a bar or something? Tell me, Kenzi, what make you trust her?!" Her eyes were truly blue now and everybody could feel the tension rising in the air.

Those eyes were what hunted her the most in her nightmares. It didn't matter if she dreamt of when that man had raped her, or when she was in Mum Lila's care… it were the eyes that made her always woke screaming and crying for Lauren. Kenzi started shaking, seeing those eyes so close, so vivid… so real. "I- I-" she couldn't even say a word. She just shook.

"What, Kenzi? What?! Have you lost your frigging mind?"

That made Kenzi snap. Tears started running down her cheeks and her body started shaking with uncontained fear. But, even though she was scared enough to piss her pants she did something that surprised everybody. "I did! And it's all your fault!" Kenzi yelled with all her might. Her voice shook with the effort of saying those words. Of finally letting go of the feelings she had inside. "I loved you, goddamit! I still love you! You were my home, my family! I'd give away everything for you! I did!" Tears only got worse with her words. "But I can't, I just can't keep feeling like this! Knowing you loved me like a sister, knowing you cared and knowing I was important for you." Her voice lost all power and her eyes closed in pain. "I can't live knowing what is to be loved by you. I know Lauren loves me. And so do Hale, Val, Trick and Dyson. I know Vex feels guilty and his shame is bigger than anything I'd ever know, but he tries. You don't. You don't longer care." She opened her eyes and locked them with the succubus.

"I know that no matter what happens I'll still have them. I know Lauren'll still love me and that she won't abandon me or hurt me. I know that if I forget her she would make me remember her. I can keep remembering what is to have a mother who drank the day away. I can keep remembering my step father raping me every fucking day. I can keep remembering living in the streets, being sold to the biggest bidder for a moment of pleasure, being chased by the police. I can remember so many things that hurt me, but I can't live remembering what it was to be cared for by Nika, by my cousins, by my Babka. But most of all, I can't keep remembering what it was to be your sister and not having you anymore." She laughed sadly and rubbed her eyes to get rid of the tears. "I love you Bo and it hurts." She sniffed. "This was a bad idea. I should've just go and get my memory erased without you knowing. I don't even get why I wanted you to know. You don't care."

Bo sat there stunned, as all did. Each word Kenzi said had been a dagger in her chest and her heart bled with every tear the little human shed. How did she let things go so out of hand? "Kenzi I-"

"Don't." Kenzi simply shut her up. Her tears were still running, but her voice was calmer and her body no longer shook. She turned to a shocked Dr. Scordato and smiled slightly. "Can we start?"

The old Fae shook her head to clear her thoughts. "Whenever you want, baby."

The thief nodded turned to face the back of the Dal. "Please, I just want this to end." She started marching to Trick's rooms, where the Blood King told them was ok to make the procedure happen. As she passed Lauren she stopped and locked eyes with the silently crying blonde. "Please, don't be sad." She engulfed the other human in a bone crushing hug. "I love you."

Lauren smiled through her tears. Seeing the little girl so scared and yet so strong made the doctor know this was the better they could do to help her. "I love you more."

Kenzi released her, ignoring the rest of the gang. She reached into her satchel and a small new, yet worn out, journal appeared along with a thick envelope. She gave the doctor the envelope. "I have some business laying around, you know? I have a small investment in a gym not too far from here, and I own half an aquarium near Scarborough. There is also a small boutique that runs with my money, but I don't really attend… a friend of mine works it. She's kinda thick with numbers, so you'll need to help her."

"Kenzi?" Lauren's confused voice was easily heard in the shocked bar.

"I'll need you to take care of these things, people depend on them to live, so please, don't let them go bankrupt." Her request didn't really help to answer the questions roaming in everybody's mind. "In the envelope is the information and papers you'll need to take care of things." She smiled. "Make me proud!"

Eyeing the journal, the thief continued speaking. "I started this after the first time I saw Alyssa." She put it into the blonde's hands. "It's my story. From the day I was born up until my decision to forget. I guess I wanted to have my memory saved in a way. You can read it anytime you want." Her smile got just a little wider. "My memories are ours now."

The doctor simply looked at the journal, knowing this was the real thing, knowing this was the last time she saw her Kenzi.

The thief turned to Trick and Val, both Faes near the human doctor. Reaching again in her satchel, she pulled out the collar she had worn and the small cup Trick had gave her for her medicine. "I won't need this anymore." She gently put them in the bar before the Blood King, she looked at them in the eye. "This two things saved my life. Thank you for them."

"Kenzi…" Trick didn't know what to say. There were not a pair of eyes that weren't running in tears, and the oldest Fae knew this was the goodbye to a human that had been so strong, so especial and so loved.

The thief turned to look around the room. She saw everybody, her eyes lingering in each of the members that were her family. She even looked at Tamsin, the blonde detective that she had met on a handful of occasions, but had made her feel welcome. She didn't look at Bo, though. She knew that if she looked at the succubus she might truly broke and she was ready to move on.

Turning yet again to the back of the bar, she took Dr. Scordato's hand and started walking.

She was saying goodbye to those who loved her and her heart broke. They loved her.

Everybody except _her_.

XxXxX

An eerie silence had fallen upon them.

Two hours. Nineteen minutes. Thirty five seconds… and counting.

That was the time Kenzi had been locked with the Memory Eater and nobody had said a word. That's it, until Lauren finally had to speak.

"Bo, what the hell?" The doctor's voice was just above a whisper, yet controlled in disbelief.

The succubus looked at her girlfriend, still shocked at what had happened. "Wha-?"

"Did you have to be that cruel with her? Bo, what the hell is wrong with you?!"

"Hey!" The succubus said indignantly. "I was the only one that saw that woman is nuts! None of you batted an eye. We don't know her!"

"On the contrary, _my love._" Those word were said with such poison Bo wondered what had happened to her lovely doctor. "I work with Dr. Scordato on daily basis and she had been seeing Kenzi for months, you hear me? Months!"

That deflated the succubus instantly. "What?" She whispered.

Lauren just looked at her as angry tears ran down her cheeks. She was tired of walking the succubus through all the messes she made. She was angry at her girlfriend for all the stupid choices she had made. She was angry at Bo because she was the last straw, she was the reason Kenzi wanted to forget them, forget her.

"Bo," It was Trick who approached the upset brunette. "Kenzi had been feeling awful since the accident and she had been talking to Dr. Scordato for two months now. The good psychologist is specialist in the mind and she is also a Memory Eater. She offered to help since the beginning, but we thought Kenzi needed to think thoroughly about it." Her grandfather smiled at her. "She did, Ysabeu. She thought about it for two months and she came to the conclusion this was the best for her."

The brunette looked at them, hurt evident in her eyes. "And you didn't tell me my little sister was seeing a shrink? Why?"

Lauren hurled her full glass of ale at Bo, missing her just by inches. "Goddamit, Bo! We fucking told you! Kenzi and I told you the very same day she started her sessions!"

None of the present could deny that. They all knew Kenzi was seeing the doctor on daily basis and that she was a lot calmer because of that, well, she was calm as long as she wasn't sleeping.

"Really, Bo?" Tamsin, the final piece of their police trio told her shocked, still eying the now shattered beer glass on the floor. "Even I knew the little human was seeing the doctor."

"How?" The succubus asked aghast. If Tamsin knew, why didn't she? The Valkyrie was the newest of their gang, she didn't know the old Kenzi and she certainly didn't know what had happened to the little human all those months ago.

"She told me. It was no big secret." And it was true, if you were Kenzi's friend you ended knowing almost everything she was doing that day. It was amazing what talking to Dr. Scordato had done to her. She was more open, chirpier, and although there was a little longing in her eyes, she was the happier these days than she had been before.

Tamsin was curious of the girl since she started working with Bo. All in the Fae community knew about the human that had been brave enough to face the Garuda and live to tell, yet none of them knew what had happened to her after that. The little human had been with Trick one day Lauren couldn't take her to the Clinic and the Valkyrie had arrived to the bar to find a cranky little human being scolded by the bartender, apparently the empty glass of ale in front of her wasn't supposed to be there.

With her curiosity picked, the blonde detective was soon engaged with a little thief that was as inquisitive as a five years old. The raven haired human had talk to her unafraid and had even laughed at her puns! After that day they had started to build a strange relationship in where Kenzi would talk to her heart content about nothing and Tamsin would actually listen, giving just the necessary amount of nodding and grunting to let the girl know she was still awake. They exchanged jokes and stories about thefts… the little nuisance was pretty fun and cute.

Bo slumped in her chair. She was an awful best friend and an even more awful big sister. "How can I fix this?" She wondered out loud, hoping anyone could answer her.

Before they could actually answer her Dr. Scordato came running into the bar. "We have a problem."

XxXxX

Three hours. Forty four minutes. Sixteen seconds.

That's how much it had taken Lauren to calm a freaked Kenzi down.

Three hours. Five minutes. Ten seconds.

That's how much it had taken Val to know she was never going to have kids, especially after seeing Kenzi panicking.

Two hours. Forty nine minutes. Thirty two seconds.

That's how much it had taken Dyson to leave, his ears sore from all the crying and wailing Kenzi did.

One hour. Three minutes. Twelve seconds.

That's how much it had taken Trick to get over his shock at the Kenzi he saw.

Fifty minutes. Twenty three seconds.

That's how much it had taken Tamsin to flee from the scene, closing the door behind her just in time to prevent Kenzi to escape.

Thirty minutes. Forty five seconds.

That's how much it had taken Dr. Scordato to admit she didn't know what had happened to the girl now before them.

Three minutes. Eleven seconds.

That's how much it had taken Hale to faint when his eyes landed on a naked and shivering Kenzi.

One minute.

Of seeing pale blue eyes welled in tears. Of loud cries that broke her heart. Of tiny fists clenched in despair. Of tiny feet running around.

Sixty whole seconds.

That's how much it had taken Bo to realize that this time she was going to be better. That she was going to be strong and she was finally going to take the responsibility she was so kin to avoid.

That was how much she had to stare at the sight before her before knowing this was not a joke and that her heart was actually ready to take care of Kenzi the way the girl needed to be taken care of. That was how much it had taken to realize it was time for bigger changes.

So, as she cuddled Lauren in her lap, at Trick's chair in the lower level of the Dal, she started making plans. The blonde doctor was truly mad at her, but she was going to prove her she was going to be the best girlfriend ever. She was going to stay at home more often, she was going to listen to her, to talk to her, to hold her, to be simply there for her. She was going to take care of them, of the two blondes in her life.

Everybody had already left and so only the three of them were still in the room Trick had gave them to wait until Kenzi woke again. All the crying, confusion and general panic had exhausted the younger human. Bo knew this was their chance to make things better for their little thief, and she hoped to the heavens that she and Lauren would have the necessary strength to cope with their new cargo.

"'oren? Bo?" A small, sleepy voice called from the couch where Kenzi had been sleeping.

Lauren promptly got up from her lap and sat next to the girl, the doctor's lab coat engulfing her small frame. "What is it, baby?" Her hand caressing dirty blonde hair, calming the girl instantly.

"I scared." The tiny voice said again, it trembled with fear and sadness.

Bo smiled at the two blondes before her. Getting up she also approached the younger human and kneeled before her. She easily took two petite hands in one of her own and with the other caressed a small pale cheek. "There's no need to be afraid." She smiled at Kenzi. "Lauren and I will take care of you."

"Pwomise?"

Bo looked at her girlfriend and saw the true love the doctor had for the girl next to her. They weren't sure what had happened, but once they had calmed Kenzi down and the girl was again sleeping, they all had seen the gift this situation really was. Sure, there were going to be tests done, blood taken and medical examinations performed, but they really believed this was the best outcome they could possibly ask for.

Looking back to Kenzi, Bo smiled. The four-years-old smiled back, her long blonde hair framing her chubby face and her eyes sparkling with utter trust only young age allows. "I promise, sweat pea." Small tears gathered in her eyes. "I promise you this time everything is going to be fine."

Yes, they didn't know what had happened to make Kenzi young again, nor did they know how it was possible for the girl to retain certain facts from her previous life, such as who were Lauren and Bo, but had managed to forget things like her name and family.

They didn't know how the girl had managed to end like that, but they were happy.

Finally Kenzi had a chance to revive her childhood and, finally, she had the chance to sleep without nightmares and memories haunting her. Finally she had the chance to play around, have friends her age, get into trouble and do things that probably would ended with her crying. Finally she got the chance to be naughty, to be free, to be reckless and to be happy. Finally she got the chance to be grounded, scolded and taken care of, just as she deserved.

"I promise."

Finally, she had the chance to stop feeling unlovable.

XxXxX

_Would you do it with me  
Heal the scars and change the stars  
Would you do it for me  
Turn loose the heaven within_

_All I ever craved were the two dreams I shared with you.  
One I now have, will the other one ever dream remain.  
For yours I truly wish to be._

_**Ever Dream (Nigthwish, 2005)**_

_The End…?_

**AN: And this is the end of this story. **

**I hope everybody had enjoyed reading what I'd create… I guess I wanted to have a background story for a little Kenzi plot, I just didn't think it was going to be this long and angst filled. The story simply wrote itself upon a simple phrase: "Everybody except **_**her**_**.", which was featured in this episode (cookie points for whomever know where the phrase is).**

**If you want to make a little Kenzi story and you have no idea how to make that happen, please, feel free to use this story as prequel. The only thing I ask is for you to share the link with me so I can read the marvelous stories I know are lying somewhere in your minds.**

**Also, cookie points for whomever can tell what the names of the chapters mean and what word they form.**

**I'll be gone then, to do my own sequel. I already know what I want to happen and well, I'm already started writing.**

**Thanks for reading and liking. **


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